Support our guides & drivers in Bhutan and Ladakh
Donation protected
In the Indian Himalayas and Bhutan many people live from tourism, but the global Corona pandemic has brought this to a standstill. Unfortunately, it seems that the situation will not improve soon. We organize trips in these areas and ask for your help for our local staff. With a donation of € 25 you can already help our guides and drivers!
Some of our guides, drivers and other employees (such as cooks and horsemen who assist on trekking tours) are forced to return to their villages, where the family still grows their own food. But without additional income this is a difficult and hard existence. Another part of the guides and drivers have settled permanently in the larger cities, where the cost of living is relatively high. Especially these have been hit hard.
With this action we want to support our local staff, so that in these months they have at least enough money for food, rent and other essential necessities of life for themselves and their families. Everyone who has travelled with us (or without us) to Bhutan, Ladakh, Kashmir, Sikkim or Northeast India will be able to confirm that it is thanks to these people that the trip went well and (hopefully) was an unforgettable experience.
The areas where we are active are rather far apart and the tourism season is slightly different everywhere. In Bhutan this is the months March to May. These have already passed without a single foreign tourist visiting the country (Bhutan is closed for foreign tourists at the moment). In Ladakh, the season started a month and a half ago, but it is already certain that it won't be much different here (a quarantine requirement of two weeks after arrival makes travelling to India almost impossible).
Our aim is to provide income support of Rs. 12,000 for three months to the most important of our local employees plus two home-stays that dependent to a significant degree on our customers. This is $500, or €425 per person/family.
This includes 25 guides and drivers, and two families running a homestay. The total amount is $13,500, or €11,500.
Will you help these people? We would like to thank you on behalf of our guides, drivers and host families in the Himalayas!
Some of our local staff
Guide Prem
Prem is one of our regular guides in Sikkim and Darjeeling. Like almost all Sikkimese guides he is very polite and helpful and will spare no effort to avoid selling "no". Prem mainly does cultural tours but feels equally at home on a strenuous trek to the foot of the Kangchenjunga (8687m).
Prem is a fulltime guide and together with his wife and daughter he is completely dependent on income from tourism. Now that the Sikkimese government has decided not to allow any tourists until at least December, Prem has no income for 10 months.
Lodge manager Chusket
Chusket lives in the remote village of Shyok in Ladakh. She is the manager of Shyok River Lodge, a community-based ecolodge that depends almost entirely on our customers. Chusket is a charming, helpful hostess who in the three days that most visitors stay in Shyok, teaches them a lot about the hard but fascinating life of the Ladakhis. She lives alone with her cow and two goats and, now that the monetary income has stopped, for everything that costs money depends on family and fellow villagers.
Guide Udit
Udit lives in Assam (Northeast India). He is a very specialized guide, with an enormous knowledge of the rich Assamese culture. Udit is appreciated by his guests for his friendliness, eloquence, knowledge and cheerful mood. Since February, he, his wife and daughter live off their reserves and the few tens of dollars a month he earns by writing articles for the local newspaper.
Driver Rupu
Rupu is from northwest Assam. He belongs to the Rhaba, a tribe that originally hails from Tibet. Thanks to an enormous zeal and eagerness to learn, he has raised himself from farmer to our main driver, and recently also guide. He has learned so much from driving around on our wildlife trips that he can recognize most of the 500 bird species in Kaziranga National Park. Rupu lives with his wife and daughter in Guwahati, a big city where life is not cheap. His car, normally the source of his income, has been bought with a bank loan that has to be paid monthly.
Guide Ngodup
We've known Ngodup for over over thirty years. He is a child of the Tibetan diaspora, born on the flight from Tibet to Ladakh. He is a devout Buddhist who is never too tired to translate the principles of Buddhism into simple English. Ngodup knows everyone in Ladakh and everyone knows him. Let Ngodup talk with the monks, and that ancient little temple at the back of the monastery of which Lonely Planet doesn't even know its existence will open up for you. Ngodup has two children who study at universities and, now that his income has come to a standstill, he is running up a large debt with the bank.
Some of our guides, drivers and other employees (such as cooks and horsemen who assist on trekking tours) are forced to return to their villages, where the family still grows their own food. But without additional income this is a difficult and hard existence. Another part of the guides and drivers have settled permanently in the larger cities, where the cost of living is relatively high. Especially these have been hit hard.
With this action we want to support our local staff, so that in these months they have at least enough money for food, rent and other essential necessities of life for themselves and their families. Everyone who has travelled with us (or without us) to Bhutan, Ladakh, Kashmir, Sikkim or Northeast India will be able to confirm that it is thanks to these people that the trip went well and (hopefully) was an unforgettable experience.
The areas where we are active are rather far apart and the tourism season is slightly different everywhere. In Bhutan this is the months March to May. These have already passed without a single foreign tourist visiting the country (Bhutan is closed for foreign tourists at the moment). In Ladakh, the season started a month and a half ago, but it is already certain that it won't be much different here (a quarantine requirement of two weeks after arrival makes travelling to India almost impossible).
Our aim is to provide income support of Rs. 12,000 for three months to the most important of our local employees plus two home-stays that dependent to a significant degree on our customers. This is $500, or €425 per person/family.
This includes 25 guides and drivers, and two families running a homestay. The total amount is $13,500, or €11,500.
Will you help these people? We would like to thank you on behalf of our guides, drivers and host families in the Himalayas!
Some of our local staff
Guide Prem
Prem is one of our regular guides in Sikkim and Darjeeling. Like almost all Sikkimese guides he is very polite and helpful and will spare no effort to avoid selling "no". Prem mainly does cultural tours but feels equally at home on a strenuous trek to the foot of the Kangchenjunga (8687m).
Prem is a fulltime guide and together with his wife and daughter he is completely dependent on income from tourism. Now that the Sikkimese government has decided not to allow any tourists until at least December, Prem has no income for 10 months.
Lodge manager Chusket
Chusket lives in the remote village of Shyok in Ladakh. She is the manager of Shyok River Lodge, a community-based ecolodge that depends almost entirely on our customers. Chusket is a charming, helpful hostess who in the three days that most visitors stay in Shyok, teaches them a lot about the hard but fascinating life of the Ladakhis. She lives alone with her cow and two goats and, now that the monetary income has stopped, for everything that costs money depends on family and fellow villagers.
Guide Udit
Udit lives in Assam (Northeast India). He is a very specialized guide, with an enormous knowledge of the rich Assamese culture. Udit is appreciated by his guests for his friendliness, eloquence, knowledge and cheerful mood. Since February, he, his wife and daughter live off their reserves and the few tens of dollars a month he earns by writing articles for the local newspaper.
Driver Rupu
Rupu is from northwest Assam. He belongs to the Rhaba, a tribe that originally hails from Tibet. Thanks to an enormous zeal and eagerness to learn, he has raised himself from farmer to our main driver, and recently also guide. He has learned so much from driving around on our wildlife trips that he can recognize most of the 500 bird species in Kaziranga National Park. Rupu lives with his wife and daughter in Guwahati, a big city where life is not cheap. His car, normally the source of his income, has been bought with a bank loan that has to be paid monthly.
Guide Ngodup
We've known Ngodup for over over thirty years. He is a child of the Tibetan diaspora, born on the flight from Tibet to Ladakh. He is a devout Buddhist who is never too tired to translate the principles of Buddhism into simple English. Ngodup knows everyone in Ladakh and everyone knows him. Let Ngodup talk with the monks, and that ancient little temple at the back of the monastery of which Lonely Planet doesn't even know its existence will open up for you. Ngodup has two children who study at universities and, now that his income has come to a standstill, he is running up a large debt with the bank.
Organizer
Jan Knaapen
Organizer
Amsterdam
