Welcome to the Sherpa Education Fund Website
Our Foundation raises funds for schooling Sherpa children who are from remote areas of Nepal, where access to education is extremely limited. To help give these children greater opportunities, the Foundation provides scholarships at a first-class private school which is supportive of Sherpa culture. All funds are raised through contributions and fundraising events. Alpine Ascents Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation. All donations are fully tax deductible.
Our Goal
By helping educate Sherpa children, we contribute to the development of their community. We are putting programs in place to enable students to go on to University, and following that to contribute to their home communities, perhaps through the operation of a new medical facility or contributing to educational development. Our students are fulfilling their potential and showing great academic ability. They are not too young to wish they could attend University one day. Helping enable that dream is the next step in our vision.
A Little Help From Our Friends
This is a grass-roots operation with little administrative overhead and direct payments for tuition. We encourage you to contact us about participating in this wonderful program. Our future dreams revolve around building schools in remote areas of the Khumbu.
How We Started
We believe it is important to give back to the communities we love and travel through. In 1999, Alpine Ascents International established the Alpine Ascents Foundation, a non-profit corporation, dedicated to improving the lives of people living in indigenous mountain areas. Our first area of focus is educating Sherpa children in Nepal. In 1999, The Foundation sponsored six Sherpa students for their full tuition, room, board, uniforms and books at the Dorji private school in Kathmandu. Today, we have thirteen sponsorship students and hope we will continue to grow and extend our assistance to the Sherpa people.
About the Sherpa
The Sherpa people are an ethnic group who migrated to Eastern Nepal from Tibet, beginning in the 16th century. They retain many Tibetan facets in their own culture, especially in their songs, stories and architecture. However they have no written language and their traditions and history are largely passed down by word of mouth. Their culture is fragile and is threatened by the advancement of western "civilisation".
The Sherpa and the Mountains
Ever since Sir Edmund Hillary first climbed Everest in 1953 with the invaluable assistance of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, climbers have developed close relationships with Sherpa people. It is widely recognized that without the Sherpa, westerners would rarely be able to climb the great peaks successfully. Because Sherpa guides and assistants became such an integral part of any successful team, westerners now use the word "Sherpa" to mean a local guide or assistant, sometimes without realizing that this is in fact a clan name.
Thank you for any assistance in helping to educate Sherpa Children! Please email us if you have any comments or queries.
