The Kandoo Himalayan Foundation has been set up with the aim of supporting the local community of Hongong. This is the origin of several our of guiding team, including our Nepalese Manager, Pimba Tensing Bhote. The village is a Bhote community nestled two days walk from the nearest road head, in the mountains to the west of Kathmandu.
For every participant who joins one of our Himalayan treks, Kandoo contribute $50 towards the Kandoo Himalayan Foundation. These contributions are resulting in thousands of dollars being actively inputted into this remote Nepalese community through projects that support the local people or the structure of the village itself.
What are the aims of the Foundation?
As a charity close to the heart of our Nepalese guides the Kandoo Himalayan Foundation aims to improve the quality of life in a community where luxuries are hard to come by and most people are merely surviving. By supporting the work of the Foundation we are offering a lifeline to encourage a younger demographic to continue to live in the area, helping to boost the economy and build the infrastructure to improve education and healthcare through a bottom up approach. Specific aims of the Foundation include:
- Rebuilding and developing access to the village of Hongong, making it better connected and increasing the likelihood of young people choosing to stay there rather than moving to the bigger towns and cities of Pokhara and Kathmandu.
- Supporting the local school by improving the buildings in the school itself, expanding the educational opportunities for it's pupils and helping to improve the quality of life for the 100 or so children in attendance here.
- Supporting the Kandoo guiding team, who come from this community, by funding education for their children, covering medical fees and offering career development opportunities by means of courses or qualifications that allow them to upskill.
Previous projects
As a local resident of the village, our Nepalese manager Pimba has built up a close network of contacts through charitable work he has done to help the community rebuild and grow.
Building a space for the community
Hongong community had a school but no school playground and at the request of the community, Pimba sourced funds as well as a collection of local volunteers to resolve this problem. As Hongong is extremely remote, reached by a 2-day walk into the mountains, there’s no way of getting excavation equipment to the site, so community spirit was essential in creating this space.
Pimba rallied the troops and, over a period of two weeks, nearly 600 people helped to build a playing area the size of a small football field. As a result Hongong now has a large, flat area that serves as a sports area and playground for the local school as well as an open space for communal events. This project also provided a fortnight’s paid work for the villagers who got involved which was enough to sustain their families for six months!
Fleeces for Schoolchildren
The villages in rural Nepal are generally low economic areas and many children are exposed to little shelter, particularly during the harsh winters. Families are unable to afford technical, warm clothing for their children and the freezing night time temperatures lead to little sleep and the spread of illness. By providing children with something as simple as a fleece, it gives them some warmth to encourage a good night's sleep, which in turn provides them with better prospects as it builds their immunity, helps them concentrate in school and gain a better education.
Pimba has already begun to try to improve the lives of the children within Hongong school. As an active member of the local community, he was approached by the school to ask for some help acquiring warm, good quality fleeces for every child. Pimba raised funds and produced 100 fleeces for the schoolchildren, even embroidering them with the school's name.
What is a bottom up approach?
A 'bottom up' approach is using small-scale projects that are community-led to develop a local area. All the decisions, from what the project will involve to how it will be run, are done by the community that it will support, putting the power in their hands and providing a cheaper, more sustainable method of development.
In Nepal, women who have lost or left their husbands, are subject to terrible stigma, that can affect not only them, but their families too. With employability extremely low in single women, this impacts their abilities to pay for education, food and travel, meaning their children can't attend school and live off little to no food. In an area which already has such small prospects, this can become an almost impossible situation and women become ill as they give up their own health needs to try to care for their families. With the Foundation's support we will be able to provide these women with employment opportunities such as a small business co-operative, giving them an income with which they can provide food and basic shelter for their families and allowing them to meet their own health needs.
Staff Welfare Fund
As well as making contributions to the Foundation, for each paying guest on our trips, Kandoo are also contributing $100 into a Welfare Fund which will ensure our guiding and porter teams in the Himalayas have necessary employment support such as a small income should they become seriously ill or injured and to ensure medical fees are covered.
As Nepal is still a developing country, to receive good quality healthcare, people must pay to go private, which isn't always feasible on Nepalese wages. Although we pay our guides a decent wage, long term health conditions can be difficult for them to manage as systems such as life insurance aren't in place here yet, so our Staff Welfare Fund has been set up to provide sickness pay and cover medical fees that our guides are unable to afford themselves.