Guides & Porters in Nepal
Donation protected
Trekking With Purpose is a Sydney-based Australian trek organiser working closely, and in collaboration, with Karma Treks & Karma Flights in Nepal. Speaking with Pokhara-based Prem Kunwar, we heard how the communities in Pokhara and nearby Sedi and Bangali are in dire need of food as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. For the amount of a few coffees for so many of us – AUS$35.00 – a family can feed itself for one month.
Karma Treks in Nepal is a foundation committed to helping Pokhara based guides, porters and villagers. These people are an essential part of Pokhara’s community through Karma Flights charity. They are all without work since lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No tourists means no work and zero income. Those whose careers consist of mountain trekking and guiding need help. With the lockdown in place, larger, more established companies are not going to survive. Once those guides leave, it will be hard for the industry to succeed. The tourism industry in Pokhara and across Nepal will take a long time to rebound.
Another group in dire need of support are the families of paragliding packing boys around Sedi and Bangladi. Added to this are the people from so-called lower caste, single mothers, migrant workers and physically challenged.
Prem tells us more and how we can help.
“Many people in Nepal depend on the tourism industry to survive. Around 60,000 people have been working as trekking guides and porters, over 350 tandem pilots and a similar number of packing boys. As a seasonal industry, in a normal circumstances, people have jobs for at least 5-6 months. With that income they can feed themselves and their family in off-session time (monsoon and winter). However, due to COVID-19, guides and porters, especially, are suffering. They are the only people who solely depend on the kindness of their clients’. In this hard time, we feel compelled to help our guides and porters to feed their families.
“People are also thinking about the future. There is no way to know how long the lockdown will last, but with the way things are going, it does not seem like things will return to normal anytime soon. It can be many months before the guides and porters receive an income again and can feed their family and take care of their children’s education.
“Karma Treks feels it is our prime responsibility to help our guides and porters. Yesterday, we received the tragic news that one of our guides has lost their life and was found in Phewa Lake. This is unacceptable. The guide should not feel so hopeless during these times that they decided to take their own life. Currently we are working with over 50 guides and porters. We hope to provide them relief of US$20 each for 50 families. But we do not have any money coming in. We provided 58 such dire-need families with the package of US$20 last week.”
Karma Treks in Nepal is a foundation committed to helping Pokhara based guides, porters and villagers. These people are an essential part of Pokhara’s community through Karma Flights charity. They are all without work since lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No tourists means no work and zero income. Those whose careers consist of mountain trekking and guiding need help. With the lockdown in place, larger, more established companies are not going to survive. Once those guides leave, it will be hard for the industry to succeed. The tourism industry in Pokhara and across Nepal will take a long time to rebound.
Another group in dire need of support are the families of paragliding packing boys around Sedi and Bangladi. Added to this are the people from so-called lower caste, single mothers, migrant workers and physically challenged.
Prem tells us more and how we can help.
“Many people in Nepal depend on the tourism industry to survive. Around 60,000 people have been working as trekking guides and porters, over 350 tandem pilots and a similar number of packing boys. As a seasonal industry, in a normal circumstances, people have jobs for at least 5-6 months. With that income they can feed themselves and their family in off-session time (monsoon and winter). However, due to COVID-19, guides and porters, especially, are suffering. They are the only people who solely depend on the kindness of their clients’. In this hard time, we feel compelled to help our guides and porters to feed their families.
“People are also thinking about the future. There is no way to know how long the lockdown will last, but with the way things are going, it does not seem like things will return to normal anytime soon. It can be many months before the guides and porters receive an income again and can feed their family and take care of their children’s education.
“Karma Treks feels it is our prime responsibility to help our guides and porters. Yesterday, we received the tragic news that one of our guides has lost their life and was found in Phewa Lake. This is unacceptable. The guide should not feel so hopeless during these times that they decided to take their own life. Currently we are working with over 50 guides and porters. We hope to provide them relief of US$20 each for 50 families. But we do not have any money coming in. We provided 58 such dire-need families with the package of US$20 last week.”
Organizer
Andrew Wigington
Organizer
Umina Beach, NSW