Reports from IPPG reps around the world (January 02 to December 02)

From Australia
Throughout this year I have been presenting slide shows at many different venues. At these presentations I talk on the issues of IPPG, once again the response has been very positive and I will continue to do these shows during 2003. I have been interviewed several times on radio and I have had some encouraging feedback. I will continue to network in these areas during 2003.
On Friday 10/1/03 Carrying the Burden was shown on SBS for the first time in Australia. The response I had was immediate with many emails from people wanting to assist with clothing and cash donations. We are yet to receive this money but I am sure it will soon follow.

This year, Lyn Taylor’s Adventure Travel donated a computer to the Porter’s Progress. The smile on Arjun’s face when I presented it too him was worth the stress of taking it over.
I now have an assistant, Rachel Stanton, and together we are planning fundraisers in schools and bringing the photo-exhibition to Australia. Rae has also been helping with this newsletter.
SPECIAL THANK YOU’S to World Expeditions and Brad who keep supporting IPPG by shipping clothes to Nepal for the porter bank and sponsoring the newsletter. Thank you to the organisers of the Backpackers Expo in Sydney and Melbourne for allowing us to present at the Expo free of charge. I would also like to thank Peregrine for manning the stand at the Expo in Melbourne, apparently many people visited the stand and the response was very positive. A very special thank you to all those wonderful people in Katoomba NSW who have through Mountain Designs trekking shop donated several articles of warm clothing. Thank you also to Thai Airways who allows my company’s clients to carry an excess of 10 kgs each for porters’ clothes.
Thank you also to Dr Trish Batchelor who is involved in the Machermo rescue post and who has taken the photo exhibition to Barcelona in May 2002

Ed: Lyn also does a great job of enrolling new country representatives.

From Canada
Carrying the Burden was shown at the Banff International Mountain Film Festival in November 2001. This and the subsequent 2002 touring show has kept me busy responding to follow up inquiries and certainly increased awareness of the plight of Nepali Porters. I sent posters and brochures to all the major venues ie. Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. In Calgary, I was invited to introduce the film and IPPG to the audience.

Ben Ayers represented IPPG and PP at the November 2002 show where we had a display at the exhibit that is held in conjunction with the Film Festival. Ben then toured several places in Western Canada making presentations.

Mountain Equipment Co-op, Edmonton, hosted a film and information night in late January as part of their Speakers Program inviting me to speak about our work in Nepal. In July, I was invited to make a presentation at a Rotary Club Breakfast meeting in Calgary. It was well received and may, at some point, result in a cash donation - I hope.

Special Thanks are extended to the following organizations and individuals who have given us outstanding support in 2002:
• The Management & Staff of the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture whose continuing support has opened several opportunities for IPPG and Porters Progress
• Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) and former employee, Kim Westfall, who together collected and shipped 9 boxes of clothing to Nepal in March
• Adventure Guides Inc, Kitchener, ON - impressed by what they learned from Carrying the Burden they donated four boxes of clothing to the Bank
• Monod Sports, Banff, Canada for a good supply of quality boot socks and pants
• Bhim Dhungana, a Nepali Congress Party worker, Rupchandra Gurung and Ramesh Dhamala of Himalayan Ecological Trekking (P) Ltd, Nepal, who spent many hours, days and weeks negotiating with Customs Officials in Kathmandu and were successful in obtaining the MEC shipment - Duty Free! Not an easy feat!
• And to the many generous, individual donors of new and used clothing items and money in support of our work in Nepal.

I would like to introduce Wanda Vivequin, my new assistant.
Born in Holland but raised in Kenya, Lebanon, Canada and New Zealand, Wanda Vivequin has come almost full circle and is now living in Edmonton Alberta. Her interest in Nepal stretches right back to when she was 12 years old. Never sure why and how this love affair with Nepal began, Wanda finally visited the country for the first time in 2001 and has been going back every year since then. She works with a Nepali company to run treks for mainly New Zealanders and has a strong commitment to doing whatever she can to advocate for the safety and wellbeing of porters and Nepali people in general.

From France
I hear from trekkers that there is some improvement in the clothing and equipment for porters in Nepal. Five French trekking agencies have adopted the IPPG guidelines.

I contacted a new Swiss association that promotes the porters' conditions in the trekking business through the Himalayas, Association pour le Respect et la Dignité des Porteurs d'Himalaya, Président Christian Giraud. We share the same ideas and aims so we'll continue to contact each other.

I am doing slide show about porters in the next month in some hospitals and city halls.

From Germany
The Alpine Association of South Tyrol (AVS) showed the IPPG photo exhibition on the Wolkensteiner Symposium, an alpine medical congress in Gröden/South Tyrol. Dr Urs Hefti made a speech on the opening and the exhibition was so successful that a new single show is planned for 2003.

The Alpine Association and its 90 sections and locations decided to implement the IPPG rules and to apply for IPPG-membership. A press release from IPPG was published on an NGO meeting at German-Nepal Association in Cologne. The IPPG newsletter was distributed.

Altogether there is an increase of interest, inquiries for supporting porters, especially for the clothing bank and porter insurances.
Although I am now resigning as a rep, I hope to continue helping with the artwork and to find new possibilities and venues to show the photo exhibition again in 2003.

From Hong Kong
In the last year we have been involved with fundraising for Porters Progress and the Annapurna Porter Shelter Project. Ben Ayers spent 4 days in HK passing through on his way back to Nepal. He presented his slide show and talk to the staff and students of Island School in a full school assembly. This certainly fired everybody up on the porter issue and fund raising has been pretty good since and is now organised by Wilberforce House at Island School, which has adopted "Support a Porter" as one of its charities. There was a sponsored walk and a sponsored fast, which netted US$ 5000 between them. I managed to find 200 pairs of good quality woollen socks in the back of a clothes shop in Stanley Market. After buying them for $1.50 a pair, I managed to "sell" them for $3 a pair. The purchaser immediately donated the socks back to me to send to Nepal!!. The upshot was 200 pairs of socks found their way onto the feet of porters in Nepal and, at the same time, we raised about $300.

The annual Island School community service visit took place to Kathmandu in October. Although the main purpose of our visit is to work with an orphanage that the school sponsors, we did manage to do a bit for Porters Progress. We took along a donated laptop to give them for use up in Lukla. We also bought them a new laser printer and a new TV and DVD player for the classroom. The students visited Porters Progress office and distributed flyers around Thamel. In Kathmandu, I met up with Prakash and Gehendra Gurung of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and signed the document which committed us to building two porter shelters near Annapurna Base Camp. One will be at Machhapuchhre Base Camp and the other at Deurali. The total cost is of the order of $10,000 and we have handed over the first instalment. ACAP will arrange and supervise the construction. We are hoping they might be finished by the end of 2003. We had a donation of $700 from a group of teachers and the students are now gearing themselves up for this year's fundraising. My major contribution to the fundraising is well under way. I am the proud owner of a beard, which I have had since 1975. I am prepared to shave it off if I can raise $3000. Watch this space!

From Italy
In September, I organized a talk on porters at the Katmandu Rotary Club with Dr Jim Duff. This was well received and hopefully this will bring a donation in the near future. In December I contacted various organizations and magazines. Most have responded positively to enthusiastic to the initiative.
In course of 2003 there will be the first activities (exhibition in Rome, Vicenza) and more reps will appear in Italy for IPPG. I am now in direct contact with the magazines and we will launch some interviews soon in with La Rivista del Trekking (www.trekking.it) and La Rivista della Montagna (www.cda.it). Both are leading magazines. Both Directors are personally interested.

From Nepal
There is a peace talk going on and there is a ceasefire at the moment. We Nepalese are very much hopeful for peace, progress and happiness. I hope and pray for the god to help the government and the Maoists to find strength and patience to settle down this problem by talks.

In 2002, a Sustainable Tourism Training workshop for porters was organised in Pokhara in joint collaboration of IPPG and ACAP. IPPG Brochure for porters was completed and been distributed. (Ed: Prakash has produced a fantastic Nepalese language glossy brochure for porters on AMS, HAPE, HACE, frostbite and hypothermia. This is a huge step forward in education for the porters. Copies (in Nepalese only) can be obtained from Prakash.)

A major breakthrough was an invitation from TAAN (Travel Agents Association of Nepal) to meet, along with the HRA (Himalayan Rescue Association) and NMA (Nepal Mountaineering Institute), to discuss porter issues. A lively three-hour discussion ensued and an agreement reached to meet at least annually. It feels like the tide has turned! Next meeting will hopefully include HEC and PP.

From Elsie: for the first time, the Nepalese government has put the rules and standards as they relate to Porters and other trekking industry staff on its web site. www.immi.gov.np. It specifically states that anyone hiring a guide or porter must provide life, accident, medical and evacuation insurance and puts the onus on the trekker to find out if the agency they use does insure their staff.

Ed. The Nepalese political atmosphere is precarious, and porters suffer from a drastic reduction in the trekking industry. Some estimates say tourism is down by 50 to 70 percent. Few people go on the out-of-the way treks these days. It is still safe to trek the main trails so far and it is a great time to go as there are so few other trekkers!

From Switzerland
I did various lectures about the porters and IPPG. One of them was done at the International Wolkensteiner Conference on Mountain Medicine, Italy, 4-7 Sept 2002 (same place where the photo exhibition was shown) and it seemed to me that many people did like the lecture about the porters much more than the scientific ones! There was the world highest press conference about the porters issue, at the top of the Kilimanjaro, with official statements on the Swiss Radio and Swiss Television, organized by Andre Lüthi, CEO from Globetrotter, one of the leading travel company of Switzerland. Globetrotter has agreed to inexpensive advertisement of IPPG and the guidelines in their travel brochure. I've been teaching activities for the Swiss Alpine Club and travel agencies, where I talked about the porter issue.

Plans for 2003
Writing a story about the porters in different Swiss newspapers and Swiss Radio. I will climb Kilimanjaro this autumn and do a piece for Swiss Radio and maybe TV.

From UK
My first assignment was to represent IPPG at a meeting of British tour operators to discuss the issues of porter welfare in the industry! (see the outcome of the Tourism Concern porter campaign in this issue).

Many thanks to Williams Lea in London and their employees, and Lin Ketchell of Blue Sage Trekking for raising the money necessary to open the Machermo rescue post this year. Three companies, Himalayan Kingdoms, Brasher Boots and Quatar Airways combined to freight boots out to Kathmandu in the summer and look set to repeat the exercise this year. Last year IPPG-UK was able to send £3000 to Porters Progress in Kathmandu, thanks to Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.

World Expeditions, Jagged Globe and Himalayan Kingdoms have all contributed financially to the work of IPPG. Jagged Globe, a leading UK specialist in mountaineering expeditions, invited IPPG (Dr Jim Duff and myself) to talk to their guides about porters. I'd also like to thank the individuals who return from their travels and feel moved to send in their cheques and letters of support.

In October this year, Ben Ayers will be talking and showing slides of his work with Porters Progress in Nepal at a fundraising lecture series organised by World Expeditions, thanks to Brad Atwal for organising this. Brad has actually agreed to take over as UK rep. Brad's four years experience marketing for a leading Australian adventure company has brought him closer to porter issues across the globe. In the past he has assisted the IPPG by fundraising & assisting the porter clothing bank project.

From USA
Slide and video shows (BBC video) promoting IPPG were shown, with fundraising during these events. There was a collection of clothes, enough to outfit 30 porters, which Bernhard will bring to Nepal on his next trip. IPPG information sheets were distributed at outdoor stores in Salt Lake City (inc REI and Black Diamond). Bernhard has been assessing the local situation of porters on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest in fall 2002. Conclusion: due to strict regulations from Chinese authorities and the fact that all of the porters are inhabitants of high altitude areas, conditions seem better compared to Nepal.

Plans for 2003
Slide shows and video shows. Collecting clothes. Writing articles about porters to be published in Israeli travel magazines. Distributing newsletters and IPPG Info at Mountain festivals and ski/climbing fairs in Utah.
Special Thanks to the Department Head of Pediatrics of Primary Children's Medical Center in Utah for supporting Bernhard

REPS COMING AND GOING
Departed: Monika Scheiffer (GERMANY), Jo Chittenden (UK), Bobby McKenna (EASTAFRICA), Angela Hawse (USA) A big thank you!!
New: Brad Atwal (UK) Alison Crowther (PERU), Navyo Eller (ITALY), Chris Morris (EAST AFRICA), Wanda Vivequin (Canada)

Jump to reports:
Australia
Austria
Canada
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Italy
Nepal
New Zealand
Peru
Scandinavia
Switzerland
Scotland
United Kingdom
United States

  Contents:

Editorial

Download a PDF version of this Newsletter

Film Reviews and Poetry

Financial Report for 2002

From the Reps around the World

Who are the Porters of Nepal?