|
Porters’
Progress shows no sign of slowing down. This past fall was
highlighted with a series of international presentations and
fundraising events to support our work in Nepal. We outfitted
1,000 porters with warm clothing between September and December
alone. Porters continue to support our programs and help us
determine new directions and initiatives, and we are currently
benefiting from the volunteer efforts of dozens of porters
each week.
Our porter
registration program has grown with great speed, and we have
around 400 porters in our database. In Lukla, we will be strengthening
this program and offering a free porter arrangement service
from the airport that will seek to eliminate some of the tensions
that have arisen between porters and the local security forces
over access to the airport.
We are
now gearing up to execute a series of cutting-edge programs
that will address the needs of child porters in Eastern Nepal.
This initiative is part of the International Labour Organization’s
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC),
and represents an amazing opportunity to build the capacity
of our office. We will be focusing upon a selected few portering
communities in the Khotang district, and will be implementing
programs such as school reconstruction, microfinance, and
even a micro-health insurance service that will be, to our
knowledge, the first of its sort ever implemented among semimigrant
populations.
Porters
continue to attend our education and art classes in great
numbers, and our HIV/AIDS program has provided 1-day intensive
awareness courses to 170 porters, awareness programs for over
800 porters and community members. We have also distributed
nearly 10,000 condoms to porters in the past six months alone.
Porters’
Progress would like to thank everyone that has helped us accomplish
our goals to date, including essential and ongoing support
from the IPPG. We are currently seeking donations of sunglasses,
pants, and warm clothing along with rock-climbing gear (harnesses,
ropes, and shoes in particular) to help us establish a leadership
program for porters in Lukla and Kathmandu.
Ben Ayers
Porters Progress website www.portersprogress.org
|
