Join us in supporting efforts to build and provide services to schools and clinics in remote Sherpa villages in Nepal Himalaya. Special charity trips will be promoted where 50% of the profits of the trip will be donated to Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, Inc. For traditional trips, there is also an opportunity to donate, and Sherpa Travel trip participants are requested to make a $250 tax deductible donation to Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, Inc. a 501C3 non-profit organization. This donation should be made from the trip cost and then the balance becomes the actual trip price. If you choose not to make the $250 donation, there is not a discount in the trip cost. Our hope is that with these easy to do donation, you will become invested with the success of the efforts and become a long term Friend with sustained support.
Trip Leadership: All scheduled charity trips will be led by Wangdowa Sherpa to Phapre Village, Okhaldunga, East Nepal and other destinations in Nepal. Please feel free to ask for trip questions or how our charity trips work. Wangdowa can be reached at info@sherpa-travel.com
Projects that are currently underway and need support:
Beginning in 2012, The Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People non-profit group and other partners have raised funds to acquire land and have built a five-classroom building named Pikey Phapre Primary School that is located in Phapre village in northern Okhaldunga District, Nepal. From a generous donation, wood stoves for heating that vents smoke outdoors will be installed in five classrooms in spring 2019.
Phapre school has asked the District Education Department for Nepal Government salaried teachers. As with many other schools, the needs exceed the available funding, so we are facing challenges for hiring a quality teacher. To meet this immediate and ongoing need, we have decided to raise money to recruit and hire a skilled and professional trained private teacher(s). This position will have skills resulting from attaining a degree as a Bachelor of Education or Master of Education. Donations are earnestly encouraged and accepted through the Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, Inc. a 501(c) 3 non- profit organization. Please visit the website for instructions on how to donate at www.friendsofhimalayansherpapeople.org
The next phase will be to develop health services and to build a health clinic in Phapre Village to provide basic health care needs for villagers, educational materials and workshops to improve health and hygiene. An important effort will contribute to replacing smoky, open fires used for heating and cooking in the village people’s homes with energy efficient and well vented stoves that improve health by decreasing the illnesses and respiratory ailments from the smoke.
How you can help
Tax Deductible Donation to a non-profit charitable organization:
Sherpa Travel trip participants are requested to make a $250 tax deductible donation to Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, a 501C3 non-profit organization. This donation should be made from the trip cost and then the balance becomes the actual trip price. If you choose not to make the $250 donation, there is not a discount in the trip cost. Our hope is that with these easy to do donation, you will become invested with the success of the efforts and become a long-term Friend with sustained support.
Your contributions to Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, a 501c 3 non-profit organization, contribute to projects in progress and our goals to develop sustainable programs mentioned above.
Background of Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People
Wangdowa was born into and as a child and adolescent lived the traditional Sherpa life. He deeply appreciates his Sherpa cultural and Himalayan natural heritage. He has a deep passion and commitment to find productive ways to address the challenges that face traditional Sherpa villages. His efforts bring together his life’s work of providing quality ecotourism trips and promoting understanding and ways to contribute to an improving the quality of life for traditional Nepali villages as they struggle to balance their cultural survival with meeting basic needs and developing the next generation of Nepali stewards of nature and culture.
The birth of the Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People begins with the focus on Wangdowa Sherpa’s home village, Phapre. In 2011, 16 community members from California’s Eastern Sierra trekked to Phapre and visited students at a makeshift school. They clearly saw that to keep the school alive, land needed to be acquired and school facility needed to be built with ongoing support for teachers and textbooks.
After we returned home, we formed the Friends of Himalayan Sherpa People, Inc. (FHSP) to support the priority needs of Phapre Village and other such villages in the Himalaya of Nepal. We began work immediately by incorporating the FHSP, while working on filing our application for an Internal Revenue Service 501 (c) 3 nonprofit status (awarded in 2013) and ongoing efforts for collecting donations to build the school.
For details, visit www.friendsofhimalayansherpapeople.org