Sponsorship acknowledgements
In 2004 IPPG embarked on an ambitious sponsorship campaign to help funding of the Machermo Porter Shelter and Rescue Post.
By the end of the year a number of companies and individuals had generously signed up.
A sponsor's view
Jo Arnold, co-director of Australian expedition and trekking company DCXP, explains their motivation to donate US$1,000
to IPPG for the next three years.
Duncan Chessell’s first impression of the vital role of porters in Himalayan trekking and mountaineering was forged
on his very first visit to the country. He participated as a junior member of a mountaineering expedition to a remote corner
of Nepal, and the team employed many porters to carry piles of food, fuel and equipment on the long trek to base camp.
That these men carried loads up to 30kg on a tump line around their forehead was amazing enough. That they proceeded to
walk through falling snow, and camped above the snow line with so little gear was extremely sobering for a young man on
his first major expedition. Australians tend to be an egalitarian bunch and found it shocking that the locals who managed
the porters cared little for the porter's welfare and kept the ‘members’ unaware of problems. We have since
employed porters on many expeditions in Nepal, and also in Tanzania. These people have made and continue to make possible
our relatively comfortable, safe and successful journeys into the mountains.
My own favourite was a trek up the Hinku Valley to Mera Peak – for just two westerners, when we were accompanied
by a team of seven strong, capable and kind young men, mainly from the southern parts of the Solu Khumbu, as well as our
cook and sherpa. In such a small group we all ate together and we ‘members’ soon began to know ‘our’
porters a little, we all tried to communicate – mainly with smiles and gestures, as I recall!
As a company operating international expeditions we keep that responsibility in mind. We aim to be fair and reasonable
in our employment conditions, and to ensure adequate food, fuel, clothing and equipment. Porters, cooks and sherpas have
insurance when they accompany us and our clients, and we actively care for their wellbeing and insist that our sirdars do
the same. We are sincerely grateful to the IPPG for their efforts to educate trekking companies and to assist and educate
porters to take care of themselves, and are proud to assist in their efforts.
*Duncan Chessell and Jo Arnold operate DCXP Mountain Journeys from a base in South Australia.
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