From Australia
Lyn Taylor is always very active in letter writing and finding ways to promote IPPG's aims. Lyn organised an IPPG stall at the Backpackers and Adventure Travel Expo, 10-12 November, which was run by Gillian Marcham, with the help of Sam Fancourt, MJ Urtwyler, Sam Kutner, Bob Bundy, Colin Tansley, Marienne Short. and Joyce Moody. They all did a fantastic job of manning the stall and Gillian gave daily talks. The feedback on Gillian's talk about Nepal and the porters was excellent, captivating the audiences for an hour each day. Gillian is typical of IPPG volunteers worldwide, really putting her heart into it despite her very busy physiotherapy practice.
World Expeditions had an IPPG display on their stall at the Getaway Exhibition, both in Sydney and Melbourne.
Jim Duff did a couple of slides presentations/fund-raisers in Sydney and Melbourne, presented and organised by Patagonia. All proceeds were donated to the IPPG ($10 a ticket). Patagonia also donated a lot of top gear to the Porter Clothing Bank.
A column was written in Wild Magazine about IPPG, spring 2000 issue. A donation was made by Australian Geographic towards a porter documentary and World Expeditions part-sponsored Jim's visit to Nepal in September, which facilitated the organisation of the photo exhibition.
From Canada
Elsie James's mailing list is growing steadily. Elsie has plans to contact local and national TV stations to encourage them to screen the BBC video Carrying the Burden.
WestCan Treks is holding a Nepal Tour Information & Slide night in January (in Calgary) and will highlight IPPG activities and has offered to donate door receipts to IPPG.
The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture have accepted to house the Photo Exhibition in February.
Dick Housley of Calgary has offered to help contact potential donors of clothing (local ski operators and manufacturers of outdoor clothing) for the Porter Clothing Bank and also look for corporate help with transportation of the material to Nepal.
Elsie is hoping to fill the big "hole" in the IPPG representation in Canada by finding reps in Eastern Canada.
From France
Dr Nicholas Peschanski did a French pamphlet about porters' safety. It was accepted by the French Honorary Consul for Nepal and will be distributed with every visa application form for French citizen travelling to Nepal.
Nicholas is working on the translation of the Shyam's story and is still waiting for the French Daily Newspaper translation of the Sunday Times article Dead Men Walking.
From Germany
Monika Schiefer has been busy this year with working on the IPPG web site and mailouts. Monika was invited by the German-Nepal Friendship Association to a meeting of NGOs in Koeln at the beginning of December. She gave a speech on IPPG followed by a 45 minutes discussion. IPPG got a very good reception with various people offering to help.
Monika was also very active as an art consultant helping to organise the photo-exhibition in Kathmandu.
For the coming year, Monika is planning:
- articles with the journalists she met on the NGO meeting
- maybe holding the photo-exhibition
From Hong Kong
IPPG welcomes the new representative in Hong Kong, Pete Clarke. Pete has already been active by organising unwanted winter clothing from the English Schools Foundation (five large secondary schools, nine primary schools) which went to the Porter Clothing Bank in Kathmandu.
The article from Stephanie Clarke of UK Dead Men Walking was published in the South China Morning Post.
From Nepal
As always Prakash Adhikari and his team have done a great job.
The photo exhibition was a success (see report in this issue)
The Sharing the Load pamphlets which were printed last year (20,000 copies) have nearly all been distributed. Another 20,000 are on their way, sponsored once again by the Swiss Society of Mountain Medicine in Switzerland, and prepared by Deepak Thapa and Prakash Adhikari.
ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project) has offered to distribute IPPG newsletters and flyers at their checkpoints and visitor information centers. ACAP has allocated a small budget to hold small workshops for porters in Pokhara. ACAP has also mentioned starting a small research project where data on porter loads, wages, numbers, equipment, etc would be collected at the ACAP checkpoints. (Note from the editor: if anyone out there has the skills, time and money for this, please contact IPPG).
Ben Ayers, USA IPPG representative, has been very active in Nepal setting up the Porter Clothing Bank, and helping with the BBC documentary and the photo-exhibition. Ben also gave a one-hour presentation in January to about 40 guides about porter safety and treatment.
Ben Ayers and Deepak Thapa have been working on the production of a porter poster (photo by Jeff Hersch). It will be distributed along trekking routes to raise awareness.
From New Zealand
In early October Trish Batchelor organised a slide show/awareness evening in Auckland. Peter Hillary, Graeme Dingle and Liz Harding generously donated their time. There were around 180 people attending and NZ$1,900 was raised (and later donated to IPPG-Nepal). The BBC documentary was also shown.
Trish is organising the photo-exhibition for Innsbruck (Austria) in June 2001 to be displayed at the 6th International Conference of Travel Medicine Society. This meeting will be attended by at least 1,000 Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases physicians from around the world and hopefully it will encourage more physicians who see travelers to tell their clients about IPPG and porter care before they travel to Nepal.
Finally, Trish is leaving NZ to return to Australia in February, so she is on the look out for a replacement rep. If you are interested, contact Trish or Jim Duff.
From Scandinavia
A big welcome to our new Scandinavian representative. Lena Fauske. Lena intends to start raising porter awareness in Norway. With a Norwegian population of only four million people Lena aims to expand to cover Sweden and Denmark.
From Switzerland
Urs Hefti wrote an article and gave information on IPPG in Forum Alpinum, June 2000 issue
The Swiss Society of Mountain Medicine agreed to sponsor the next printing of 20,000 Sharing the Load pamphlets in Nepal. Urs donated photos of injured or neglected porters to complete a set that Jim made up for reps to use at slide shows, exhibitions or articles in the media.
From UK
Ed Cartwright reports: "When the last newsletter went to press the IPPG had recently made it into the national press with an article in The Sunday Times. This initial publicity was followed by a BBC 2 documentary Carrying the Burden which was presented nationally in September. The documentary focused specifically on the plight of porters in Nepal and the work of IPPG. In a moving series of porter interviews, some of whom had been crippled by frostbite or neglected while portering for westerners, the doco brought out how important the trekking industry is to the aspirations of these impoverished people. The interviews were conducted against a backdrop of fantastic footage of the Nepalese Himalayas. This combination of beauty and tragedy created a powerful message that emphasised the incongruity of the physical price that many porters pay in order that westerners can enjoy the Himalayas.
Immediately after the documentary I was inundated with letters of support and encouragement and generous donations while others offered to take clothing out to Nepal for the clothing bank. The response to the program illustrated two things. Firstly, relatively few people are aware of the problems faced by porters in Nepal. Secondly it was clear that there is considerable sympathy for porters and consequently the work of the IPPG is very much appreciated.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported IPPG in the UK and in particular the researcher and producer of Carrying the Burden, Sangita Manandhar. By reaching out to so many people in Britain so effectively, Sangita has done a great service for the porters in Nepal and continues to be a constant source of support and advice. Thanks to all those who responded to the documentary by contacting me; your support and donations were invaluable."
Ed has also been contacted and interviewed by two other researchers. Meantime High magazine has generated publicity amongst the climbing community by featuring regular short articles on IPPG. Himalayan Kingdoms Treks have kindly distributed over 500 Sharing the Load leaflets to their customers. The IPPG-UK mailing list continues to grow, and Ed is keen to hear from anyone in the UK who knows of individuals or companies who might be interested in the issue or in endorsement by IPPG.
In the near future Ed hopes to take up Doug Scott's offer of a lecture to raise funds for IPPG.
From USA
Ben Ayers has been extremely busy organising the Porter Clothing Bank (see article) in collaboration with HEC (Himalayan Explorers Club). HEC, with Scott Dimetrosky its director, have seen the start of a fruitful partnership with IPPG in getting the Porter Clothing Bank up and running. Scott is now an IPPG rep, which means donations to IPPG in USA will be tax-deductible (donations will be processed by HEC, which is a registered charity). Welcome on board, Scott!
Drs Jim Litch and Rachel Bishop are still in Kathmandu. Rachel featured in the BBC documentary and they are both actively promoting IPPG.
Meantime Martin Weir is becoming active in California and would like to host the photo-exhibition. If you have suggestions for venues and would like to help organise this project, contact Martin directly.
