Welcome to our new representatives

We welcome to our IPPG family a new representative in India, Anindya Mukherjee “Raja”. In his own words:

“I was born and brought up in a Hindu Family, completed study in Botany Honors from the University of Calcutta in 1991. I also studied in Journalism. I am married to a great lady “Sangita” and we are proud parents of our son “Ananda”.

I am a mountaineer and explorer based at Calcutta (now Kolkata). I am also a popular adventure writer in Bengali Travel Magazines and newspapers. Apart from regular feature writing I have written two books in Bengali.

Love of nature & adventure came naturally to me as my uncle Sujal Mukherjee was one of the pioneer mountaineers of West Bengal.

We would also like to welcome Drs Nick and Emma Mason who are our newest UK reps.

Peter Ling is our new representative in Tanzania.

From the reps around the world

UK Ian Wall

By the end of 2005 CAN (UK) had all but finished the building work at the Machermo Porter Shelter and Rescue Post while the IPPG was busy electrifying it with a wind and solar power hybrid system as well there are furnishings and equipment to be installed. We owe a debt to the many supporters of the project who are named on the website and on the signs at Machermo.

Especial thanks to the energetic Ian Wall who has made his third visit to the site in his role as IPPG UK rep and CAN trustee (see Ian’s report). Finally a big thank you to all our generous donors and the locals and volunteers of the IPPG who got the ball rolling.

NEPAL Prakash Adhikari

Prakash has been quietly supporting the efforts at Machermo while keeping on with porter advocacy.

Country representatives met in Kathmandu in October, a rare event to get face to face. Present were Lyn Taylor, Wanda Vivequin, Rejane Belanger, Jim Duff. Elsie James nearly made it. First we met Ang Chokpa, manageress of Porter Progress Nepal and Barbara Holl (PP UK). We discussed directions and projects for IPPG in general and agreed the Machermo Project was consuming most energy right now but should be bedded down in a couple of years.

Other projects discussed include the need for a new poster design, to be distributed in Nepal along the lines of the highly successful ‘Tough Proud Vulnerable’ poster. Prakash Adhikari plans to run further porter education/empowerment programs.

FRANCE Dr Nicolas Peschanski

I have been proud to work with the second biggest French Outdoor Travel Company "Allibert" on the improvement of the porter's situation.
We started the spring campaign with all the treks in the Nepal Himalayas and the clients. There has been good feedback and we have decided to continue with our efforts in this area.

CANADA Wanda Vivequin

Efforts this year focused on running slide shows and taking over great piles of boots and gortex for the porter clothing bank in Nepal.  Thanks to the generosity of Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) and hiking groups in the Edmonton area.

In April 2006 MEC staff from throughout Canada collected hundreds of pairs of sunglasses, hats, gloves and mittens for the porter clothing banks in Namche and Kathmandu.

I also presented a lecture to a recreational ethics course at the University Alberta.

Special thanks to Neil Haggard whose slide shows raised donations.

My aim in the next 12 months is to get an international photo contest celebrating the mountain porter up and running.

AUSTRALIA Lyn Taylor

IPPG this year has had a wonderful response from Australian donors and a large part of this is due to Jim Duff’s efforts in taking group of doctors on treks to Everest area and on the way visiting the Machermo Rescue Post.

Additional big thank you to Jemima Robertson of Paddy Pallin Australia for her effort in their boot exchange program.  We now have hundreds of pairs of boots which we are slowly transporting to Nepal with the help of Peregrine, World Expeditions and Lyn Taylor's Adventure Travel and many independent travellers. These boots have been accepted gratefully by Porters Progress in Nepal.

Thanks to Kathmandu Store and Kelly’s camping for their generous donations of clothing, Scotch College and Toorak College in Victoria  for their very generous donations from students, parents and teachers,  Perks Accountants and their donation from 35 students, the money   was raised from a Student Careers Fair.  Special thanks to World Expeditions, DCXP Mountain Journeys and Australian Himalayan Foundation for their generous 3-year sponsorship donation.

Thanks also to Coralie Hicks and Ken Chamberlain for all of their assistance.

PAKISTAN Ken MacDonald

Ken MacDonald has been very active in the Karakorum holding talks with Balti porters and interested parties. He says:

“In short, porters face an increasing range of problems through their participation in the adventure tourism industry (health, inadequate equipment/shelter/food, overweighting of loads, underpayment, threats of blackballing, etc.).  Foreign tour operators (or expedition members themselves) do not seem cognizant of these problems, or if they are seem willing to admit that they have a responsibility to address them..  Local tour operators ignore them, (in many cases, the competition between local tour operators creates some of the problems), largely because addressing them would reduce profits.  The government has little interest in (or capacity to) addressing the problem. And porters themselves have inadequate means of effectively addressing the problems.  They have little power relative to tour operators and government officials, and suffer the threat of sanction should they speak out or undertake some other form of direct action.  This leaves outside agencies such as IPPG or IMEC as two of the few agencies who are concerned with, and able to effectively address the problems faced by mountaineering porters.  If these remain unaddressed, the relative poverty and negative health effects of those who work as mountain porters in northern Pakistan will deepen”.

(IPPG donated 1000 GB pounds to this dialogue, Ed)

The is now a Balti porter organization “Khurpa Care” which has been hard at work over the winter and has established an office, started a registration system, established logbooks for porters to file records of problems and complaints.