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IPPG Newsletters: January 2001
Letters from our readers |
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"I just read about International Porter Protection program. Two years ago when I climbed the Kilimanjaro in Africa I was shocked when I saw the extremely bad conditions that the porters had to bear. I felt embarrassed that I paid for a trip where the porters have hardly any clothes and eat only when there is some leftover. Also, when I was trekking on the Inca trail in Peru, the porters were carrying incredible amount of weight. Both of these times I felt that there was nothing I could do.
Thank you for taking the initiative of raising awareness of these issues and I hope your initiative will help the porters in Kenya and in Peru as well.
Thank you very much" VN
"In October my husband and I went to the Kanchenjunga region - I was heartened to see that many of the larger groups really were looking after their porters well. In particular I noted four well known companies that were doing an excellent job. This was in complete contrast to the smaller 'do it yourself' type groups we saw along the way - in general their porters were poorly equipped. I was particularly impressed by one company - unprompted, their Nepali guide proudly told us that his company was endorsed by IPPG and that their porters had warm clothes, tents, bags and mats! We, on the other hand, with our 'do it yourself' approach found that on arrival in Sukethar our porters' wet weather gear had not arrived (only gloves, shoes and socks had made it). Fortunately I had anticipated such a problem and had brought spare gear just in case...but most people wouldn't have thought to do so! My impression is that there is definitely a change happening in just the last couple of years - the larger companies are definitely doing something positive out there!" TB
"When I was leading a trek in the Everest area last Nov 2001 I came across many porters wearing the clothing from the Porter Clothing Bank. You could not miss them as they had IPPG logo and HEC logo on the gear. My group were very impressed that the scheme is working so well, and mentioned that they would spread the word."
LT, group leader
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