Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary became conscious of the Sherpa’s rugged existence during his first Himalayan climbing expeditions. These highly spirited and vibrant mountain people had no schooling for their children and no medical treatment for their families. Responding to a heart felt plea from his Sherpa friends in 1961 Sir Edmund Hillary financed and then built the first permanent school in the Mt Everest region. It was an amazing success. From it came an overwhelming flood of requests from other Sherpa villages in the Khumbu area. Undaunted, Sir Edmund took up the challenge. Gathering together his family and New Zealand mountaineering friends he formed the Himalayan Trust to assist with the fund-raising and supervision of the new projects. Forty years later the Trust has been responsible for building and maintaining twenty-six schools, two hospitals, twelve medical clinics, three airfields and many bridges and fresh water pipelines. During this time further Himalayan Trust foundations in USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany were established by Sir Edmund.

Solukhumbu Teacher Training Programme

At first the Himalayan Trust schools operated privately, with teachers recruited from Darjeeling. Academic results were very encouraging. Within ten years the control of all the schools was handed to the Nepalese Government. The Trust continued its support by providing subsidies for teacher salaries, supplies and school maintenance. From 1990 there was a high emphasis on teacher training for primary teachers. Unfortunately, due to their isolated environment, very few of the Solukhumbu teachers were able to benefit from this training. Teacher skills and commitment declined as did the pupils’ attendance and academic achievement.

Responding to this the Trust embarked on an ambitious teacher training scheme. With funding from The Grand Circle Foundation (USA), UNICEF and the Swiss Foundation, The Himalayan Trust appointed Jim Strang, a long time New Zealand member of the Trust and Ang Rita Sherpa, the Trust’s Nepalese Administrator as project supervisors. The project focuses on training all primary teachers between Salleri and Mt Everest. It gives them three weeks intensive training during their winter holidays relying on teachers from the 65 schools volunteering to attend.

For the last five years a small, dedicated team of New Zealand teachers led by Jim and Janette Strang have spend their Christmas holidays supervising the training programme. Their work has been made easier by a team of four full time Nepalese teacher trainers who travel to each school, advising and supporting the teachers. The project has achieved remarkable results with a 95% teacher turn out from day one.

In this road-less mountain terrain some teachers take up to three days to walk to the training facility in Salleri. The programme improves the teacher’s knowledge of their subjects but, more importantly, instills in them a sense of pride, professionalism and responsibility for the children in their classes. A Secondary school training programme has also been added for the 13 Lower and Higher Secondary Schools in the area.

Once the training ends in March 2004 the energy of this six year programme will be transferred to cluster work shops with key teachers continuing the in-service training. Successfully piloted in the Everest Region, the programme can easily be used in the other 75 districts in Nepal.


Further information on the Himalayan Trust can be obtained from Lady June Hillary, Himalayan Trust, 278A Remuera Rd, Auckland, New Zealand. Donations of money and kind are always appreciated.