After K2

Photo: K2 copyright Nazir Sabir 2009

Sixteen people kneel in the main hall, hands cupped toward the sky. Children, their mothers, and their grandparents whisper a prayer. Nazir Sabir, one of the toughest mountaineers alive, weeps. From this village below a glacier, two men left for K2 and never returned. Karim Meherban and Jehan Baig were carpenters, men who climbed not because they wanted to but because their families needed the money. Their deaths and nine others splashed across television screens from Kansas to Karachi and made the cover of the New York Times. In the disaster, six children in Pakistan and three in Nepal lost their fathers. The Gerard McDonnell Memorial Fund is helping ensure these children get an education. Donors, many who have never worn crampons, contributed. The Meherban and Baigs' prayer was also for them.

Nazir stands. He thinks of his brother, buried beneath an avalanche thirty years ago. He passes donations into the hands of two widows and promises to return. The children watch him in silence, too young to understand contained within those envelopes is a future.

A. Padoan

Hunza, April 2009

• 
  Click HERE to learn more about the Gerard McDonnell Memorial Fund, a sponsor of these families.

• At the Mountain Fund website, click on our Active Projects and scroll down to the Gerard McDonnell Memorial Fund.

• You may also wish to read: K2: A Letter from Nazir Sabir

Healthcare in El Salvador

One of the newest projects we're supporting is a fundraising project to benefit the people of Zaragoza, El Salvador. Noah Harper is the project leader, and his purpose is to help provide assistance to the public healthcare clinic in the village of Zaragoza.

This is the only public healthcare facility in the city, and serves a population of approximately 35,000 people. The supplies on hand are extremely minimal: one blood pressure cuff, 1 pair of crutches, no wheelchair, etc.

Click HERE if you wish to support this project.

A $4 Smile

One of our projects, The North East India Project, has recently partnered with Smile Train; a non profit helping children with cleft palates. NEIP has recently sent two children in India, Alum and Tsuti, to a Smile Train doctor who has performed the first part of their cleft palate surgery; closing up the palate. Their second and final surgery, fixing their upper lip, will most likely be in 4-6 weeks, and will provide them with a new smile. The Smile Train doctor is located in Shillong, Meghalaya, which is over 300 miles from the children's village. Word is beginning to spread around the state of Nagaland, and we anticipate getting more requests to help from other areas very soon...

THIS PROJECT NEEDS YOUR HELP ~

We want to raise $1,000.00 by the end of March to help pay for the travel expenses and surgeries for two children. Our goal is to find 250 supporters who will donate $4.00 each. I'm sure if we all looked at our weekly spending habits, we could find $4.00 to spare. My family did!

If you know of others who would like to help out, please pass this on. The more we are able to raise, the more children we can help.

Click on these links for more information:
New Smiles Fund

Make a Donation

Thank you for your support!

What direction are you headed?

What direction are you headed? Or perhaps I should rephrase the question to: "What is your 'Why' "? What inspires you? What Inspires The Mountain Fund?

Challenge. A global challenge. For all of us, not just the staff at The Mountain Fund. Consider these facts for a moment from United Nations Development Programme; Sustainable Human Development and UN Millennium Project.

• 1.2 billion people live on less than U.S.$1 dollar a day


• Over half of the world's population - 3 billion people -lives on less than U.S.$2 per day


• Every year, 6 million children die from malnutrition before their 5th birthday


• Over 11 million children die each year from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia

These are shocking figures that represent the staggering poverty that much of the world wakes up to on a daily basis.

The Mountainous Regions - Much of the poverty, lack of education, human rights violations, and lack of healthcare is in the mountainous countries of the world.

• Nepal - 47% Unemployment - 42% of population below poverty - infant mortality rate 66/1000 - per capita income $210us


• Peru - 9.6% Unemployment - 54% of population below poverty - infant mortality rate 31/1000 - 37% of population lives on under $2.00us per day


• India - 9.2% unemployment - 25% below poverty - 56/1000 infant mortality rate

Infant mortality is used to compare the health and well-being of populations across and within countries. The infant mortality rate is the rate at which babies less than one year of age die. So that we are clear on the meaning of the rates above, the infant mortality rate for the US is 6/1000.

The countries in the list above are just a few of the places where The Mountain Fund has Member Agencies working to improve individual human rights, healthcare, education, clean up the environment and give a hand to those who need it most.

What inspires us is the work these organizations are doing everyday. As you visit our website, please take a moment to consider what your support means, the number of lives that you have the power to impact and the positive change that you can make in the world.

New Safe House for Women in Kathmandu, Nepal

In Kathmandu, Nepal, many married and some unmarried women are abused on a daily basis. The Mountain Fund has recently opened a safe house to help provide a source of refuge for these women.

A recent "Foreign Policy" News Report, dated May 2008, has published a list of "The Worst Places to be a Woman". The female to male income ratio is 50:100, and the average literacy rate for females is 35%. The article goes on to say: "Marriage comes early in Nepal: Women born in the late 1970s married at a median age of 16. And motherhood is particularly dangerous. Nepal is the “deadliest place in the world to give birth outside Afghanistan and a clutch of countries in sub-Saharan Africa,” according to a 2006 report by the International Federation of the Red Cross. That’s because only about 1 in 5 births is attended by trained health personnel. But the government is taking steps to improve women’s lives: A quota system for women and minorities resulted in a third of the Constituent Assembly seats going to women in the April elections." [Click here to see the rest of the article]

In Kathmandu, most of these women’s families have turned them away. The safe house provides a secure environment for these women and their children to escape their abuse, to recover, and to become self sufficient.

They say there’s power in numbers, and we have partnered with The Women’s Foundation in Kathmandu, Nepal and with the Tessa Horan Foundation (located in Santa Fe, New Mexico).

The Women's Foundation has already built a great program, but that program is facing a crisis of capacity. They cannot provide enough housing for the women and children that have come seeking refuge and assistance in building a new life. By opening the safe house, The Mountain Fund is has added the additional capacity needed to continue an already successful and multi-faceted program. This house quickly and inexpensively adds the capacity needed.

In addition to offering a safe refuge for these women, we offer training programs to help them become self sufficent for their future. Some of our training programs include basic English language; computer skills; trek leadership; and organic gardening.

Click HERE to see more about this project and help support women in need.

Earth Spirit Rejuvenation: Supporting Projects in Indigenous Communities of the US and Bolivia

New Mountain Fund partner, Earth Spirit Rejuvenation, works in the US and Bolivia to provide solutions to cultural, environmental, and economic challenges. Even though this new nonprofit has been in business less than six months, projects are already underway in Bolivia.

Bolivia: Artisan Cooperative and Water System Development

Bolivia is a country of diversity. It houses parts of the Amazon Rain Forest and the Andes Mountains as well as dozens of indigenous cultures. Most of the country’s people live on the high plain, the Altiplano, at 14,000 feet above sea level, surviving on little more than $2 per day per household.

ESR’s purpose in Bolivia is to facilitate:
• the development of artisan cooperatives that can produce desirable products for and find markets in Western countries;
• the exchange of quality artisan goods to the US and of much-needed capital to poor Bolivian families and communities;
• access to the technical expertise of Earth Spirit to help comm. unities develop priorities and specific plans to meet their water and sanitation needs;
• the connection of Bolivian communities with Bolivian nonprofits and businesses that will carry out the needed projects.

Andean Exchange (AEx) is the name they have given the alpaca marketplace for Earth Spirit Rejuvenation. Founding Director Jennifer Hamblen, a hydrologist and yoga instructor, is receiving shipments from three cooperatives which have a total of 110 artisans. She and her AEx partner Karla Tibbetts are busily canvassing the country to find consumers who appreciate intricately beautiful artisan clothing and want to help support indigenous communities. They recently sold the clothing at the Denver Food and Gift Show, where their clothing was a hit! Proceeds from this season’s sales will go to provide training and augment the resources and incomes of the artisan cooperatives as well as to specific community development projects.

This year, Karla and Jennifer will fund public showers in a small rural community, San Jose de Catagaita, which is hours by bus on dirt roads from the closest public shower. After the rainy season ends in June, the shower blocks will be installed, along with a rainwater catchment system on the roof of the school and two dry composting toilets, all funded by Earth Spirit Rejuvenation and TERRA Resource Development, Inc. (www.terradevelopment.org).

Donations go to support specific projects which are overseen and carried about by ESR in the US, and in conjunction with small, local nonprofits in Bolivia. Check out www.earthspiritrejuvenation.org to see how you can help through purchasing clothing, volunteering, and donating funds to specific projects described on their website.

Please contact Jennifer@earthspiritrejuvenation.org for more information.

Help the Children of Nepal

The Social Development Centre Nepal has been in effect since 2006. It's a small home for orphans, and half-orphans (single parent invalid or not capable of caring for the child), located in the Kathmandu neighborhood of Khusibu near Naya Bazaar. Here, these children receive nourishment, shelter, education and medical attention.

At the time of this blog, there are currently 12 children at the centre, and one more will arrive within the week.

Through the combined volunteer efforts of many Nepali community members and international travelers, the orphanage is now being structured to become a sustainable and stable base for these children. This will give them the opportunity to grow up in Kathmandu, and to become healthy, educated and productive Nepali citizens.

The goal is to support these thirteen children as an independent, locally-run and member-funded orphanage. Operated on a completely volunteer basis with no overhead or administrative costs, this is an example of how the hard work of a few people can make a huge difference in the lives of others.

The Centre's director, Suzanne Clark, has created a fundraising page, with the help of The Mountain Fund. Her goal is to help raise the running costs of $800US per annum per child, to gain funds to change their residence to an accommodation which has water and to build a bank balance that will ensure a secure supply of food and education. Please click HERE to visit her fundraising page, and to help support this organization.

Thank you for your support!

[Note: The photo above shows the children in their school uniforms. The school fees and uniforms are generous donations from people who have met the children.]

The Mountain Fund and Adventure Engine Team Up for Nepal Trekking

February 2008: The Mountain Fund and its Trek4Good program are proud to announce an exciting new partnership with Adventure Engine. Adventure Engine is an online administration suite providing everything from reservation programs, inventory management systems, merchant accounts, e commerce solutions, and marketing and distribution programs to adventure tourism suppliers, operators, outfitters and tour companies. The Mountain Fund is a US based charity with a mission to "organize grassroots non-profit and non-governmental organizations from a diversity of disciplines, and to support and coordinate these organizations' efforts to eliminate poverty, its causes and symptoms, in developing mountain communities around the world".

The Mountain Fund/Adventure Engine partnership will make it possible for trekking
agencies in Nepal [who subscribe to ethical treatment of porters, environmentally sound practices and a commitment to sustainable tourism], to access and use the powerful Adventure Engine. The Mountain Fund's Director, Scott MacLennan, says “Many good trekking agents in Nepal are at a market disadvantage in not being able to book online and take payments online. This is standard practice for Western companies, and Western clients have come to expect that level and ease of service. Asking clients to e-mail for information, or send credit card information in an e-mail, costs these companies business. This program will make all that possible and affordable.”

1% for the People:
One of the conditions of accessing Adventure Engine via The Mountain Fund is that 1% of all trip sales will go to The Mountain Fund to be invested in schools, health clinics and other projects in Nepal. It’s a total win-win. The agent gets an affordable, smart, easy-to-use system for booking online and taking secure credit card payments, while helping his/her local charities and schools earn money.

The idea of "1 Percent for the People" was first hatched by Danny Giovale, owner of Kahtoola Snow Shoes. For quite a while, there's been a "One Percent for the Planet" program which supports environnmental work, but what about the people? What about schools, health clinics and microfinance programs? Many people living in mountainous regions today know how to care for the natural environment, as it has been the source of their livelihood for generations. What they lack is access to healthcare, clean water, good education and capital to start businesses. That is what "1 Percent for the People" is all about, by tapping into the need for tour and trekking operators to have powerful, easy to use online booking systems to sell more trips and treks. "1 Percent for the People" makes it possible for trekking agents, hotel owners and tour operators in Nepal to make more money.

To learn more about these new programs, please contact The Mountain Fund's Director, Scott MacLennan, at mtnfund@mountainfund.org.