Mountain Fund Projects for 2007

Mountain Fund Projects for 2007 - Please give them your support.

Nepal - Everest Region. Mountain Fund will sponsor a research project in the Everest region that will document and examine the impact of tourism and provide guidance to the local populations on how to manage resources for the future. The research team of A. Lew, K. Tatsugawa, and G. Nyaupane will begin work in January of 2007.
Nepal - Gerku School. In November 2007 Mountain Fund will host a work team for the reconstruction of the school in the village of Gerkhu. The school serves approximately 100 children in the area but has fallen into serious disrepair. Mountain Fund work teams will spend two weeks bringing the buildings back to useable and safe conditions.

Peru - Medical Assistance. Not far from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, Mountain Fund partner Reach out Children's Fund has been key in improving education and educational facilities to the 250 student attending the Huilloc school. Recently we were informed of the dire medical needs of these children. The following message was sent to us by the Reach Out Children's Fund.

The biggest battle for us is health care. The children never see a doctor and have yet to see a dentist. The biggest issues in the village are: dysentery, broken bones, infected teeth, cataracts and frostbite due to the high altitude.

In July 2007 Mountain Fund will host a trip to Peru to offer medical care and assistance to these children. The 16 day trip will include a tour of the Inka sites, including Machu Pichuu.

Nepal - Volunteers. The Mountain Fund Volunteer Visitor Center is now open in Kathmandu. This provides the only central source of information for anyone looking to do volunteer work in Nepal. Volunteering contributes an incredible 5% of GNP to Nepal. With peace at last in Nepal, more people than ever are trying to find out volunteer opportunities. The Mountain Fund Volunteer Visitor Center is a veritable one-stop shopping experience for volunteer opportunities in Nepal.

Peru - Microfinance. In September 2007 Mountain Fund will repeat the popular Ausangate Trek Fund Raiser for our micro finance program in Cusco. Last year we had five guests and great time. All profits go to Ainkuy, the street vendor loan program we have in Peru.

Nepal - Moving Medical Clinic. In October 2007 Mountain Fund is hosting a two-week moving medical clinic in the remote Rasuwa district of Nepal. Starting at the Karing for Kids clinic in Goljung, we'll trek the entire Tamang Heritage Trail and stop every other day to set up a health clinic. A medical staff of fifteen will spend the entire day treating anyone that comes in the door. Then we pack up and repeat the clinic in the next village up the trail. Mountain Hardwear generously provided us the with tents needed for this clinic including the main portable clinic itself, a giant Mountain Hardwear Space Station.

Nepal- Early Childhood Education. Mountain Fund has made a commitment to our partner Maya Foundation to help establish a pilot program for early childhood education in Nepal.

In 1990, 155 countries drafted the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA). Almost two decades ago, the importance of early childhood education was already stated. Unfortunately, in the rural areas of Nepal, not much was really done about it.

It wasn’t until the beginning of 2006 that UNESCO, through its daughter organization IIEP, finally gave full attention to it.

If the vicious cycle of inequality is to be broken, then child care and education have to start very early, before primary school. In most developing countries, early childhood education is restricted to urban middle-class children. Children from rural areas and low-income families not only are denied access to this kind of education, but they enter primary school later than other children. If inequalities are to be reduced, and if education is to benefit disadvantaged children, much more attention has to be given to providing early childhood care and education--- for the poor.

Peru - Enthnomusicology. The Q’eros people in the southern Perúvian Andes have maintained indigenous traditions, such as music, weaving and spiritual practices, that many other Andean communities have lost.

Holly Wissler has been an adventure travel guide in the Andes of Peru since 1982 and Himalayas of Nepal since 1987. She holds double masters degrees from the University of Idaho in Flute Performance and Music History. She is the producer of the 1998 video documentary Qoyllur Ri’ti: A Woman’s Journey, about the large pilgrimage festival in Peru known as Qoyllur Rit’i and her inside role as mayordoma (sponsor) of a dance group. She is currently on a Fulbright-Hays grant conducting doctoral dissertation research on the musical traditions and modernization of the isolated Quechua community of Q’eros in the southern Andes of Peru. During her fieldwork Holly has video-taped over thirty hours of rare and unique video footage of Q’eros musical rituals and is fund-raising to produce a video documentary about Q’eros’ traditional music. This is the first in a series of on-going documentation projects about Q’eros music, to include CD recordings and an on-line digital archive.

Mountain Fund is proud to be helping Holly create the video and document this fast vanishing way of life.

Uganda - Women's Employment Program. Working with our new partner and uber-energy person, Alison Levine, founder of ClimbHigh Foundation we hope to increase employment opportunities for women in nontraditional roles, such as guiding and portering in the climbing industry.

ClimbHigh needs immediate donations of clean, synthetic sleeping bags for women it now has employed in the Rwenzori Mountains. Learn more here.

Ongoing Projects. In addition to some of our new projects we continue to work with and support dozens of programs being run by small, local organizations in Peru, Nepal and Central Asia. We will continue to support and help these organizations grow and prosper in 2007.

In some cases the support from The Mountain Fund has been the lifeline that keeps these projects open and running. The Karing for Kids clinic in Goljung, Nepal is one example of a project that depends almost entirely on our help to keep the clinic open.

In 2006, The Mountain Fund made grants totaling nearly $18,000 to programs like Karing for Kids. In 2007 we hope to raise that amount to $25,000. With your help, we will reach that goal.