January 2007
The Mountain Fund Newsletter
The best news about good deeds on the planet.
Greetings!
Welcome to 2007! This is the year we change the world; you and The Mountain Fund, together. As a supporter, a sponsor, a partner organization or a newsletter reader, we can move incredible mountains this year.
Our year of moving mountains will start with the Outdoor Retailer Tradeshow in Salt Lake City. Our sponsor, Osprey Packs, will announce a huge new campaign in partnership with The Mountain Fund. Working with Osprey, we will recycle hundreds of used backpacks to women's outdoor education programs in Nepal and Uganda; an at-risk youth outdoor program in Kyrgyzstan; search and rescue crews in South America, Central Asia and SE Asia; boy scout troops and at-risk youth programs all over the U.S. and more.
Currently, there is no national program for the re-use and recycling of outdoor equipment. Osprey, in partnership with The Mountain Fund, has taken the lead as a responsible company committed to the environment and the advancement of access to the outdoor experience in under-served and under-privileged groups.
As Osprey rolls out it's new line of packs made from nearly 100% recycled materials, it will be donating hundreds of used packs to The Mountain Fund for re-use around the world. Recycle, reuse and empower others at the same time. That's a real win-win situation for all of us.
That's just day one of 2007 at The Mountain Fund. Read on and see what we are doing, what you are doing, to move mountains for thousands of people. Whew, we ROCK !
Climbers' Alert Network
by Mountain Fund At long last ! new climb aid
In a recent special bulletin, we announced a new humanitarian initiative for 2007 originally called Climb- Aid, and now more appropriately being called the Climbers' Alert Network.
Climbers' Alert Network grew out of the experiences of serving in a very minor role during the complex and lengthy search for Charlie Fowler and Chris Boskoff. The pair was missing in a remote area of China and information as to their exact location was not clear, leading to an even more difficult task. Sadly, Charlie was found dead, and it is presumed Chris is as well.
It was clear as the search began and progressed that friends and family had nowhere to turn for help. There is no international toll-free number to call when someone you love is late returning from a climb, a hike or any form of outdoor exploration in remote regions of the world.
A search can be an incredibly expensive undertaking, and currently there is no vehicle in place and ready to go for families and friends to raise the money needed.
Currently, no emergency fund exists to help a family member fly to the scene of a search and rescue and be nearer to the lost loved one.
There is no emergency fund to help a family member make it through the first few hard weeks after the loss of a loved one.
Over a year ago, The Mountain Fund began talking about the need for assistance to family and friends to help launch search efforts, raise money, fly to the scene and deal with the very real consequences of loss.
2007 is the year we make it real.
Our techno-geek friends are working hard right now designing a system that will allow anyone, anywhere in the world to post information about an expedition or outing. The sort of information that becomes critical to search and rescue efforts, should they be needed. A posting will require that two emergency contacts be listed and those contacts will be sent an e-mail with the destination and expected return dates. The Mountain Fund will also monitor the return dates and begin making contacts if someone does not check in on time.
The Mountain Fund is developing a human network of contacts throughout the world's mountainous regions that can be called upon for assistance. We are asking for your help to build this network. As an outdoor person, you probably know the people we need to know. Someone in China, Nepal, Central Asia or South America. Someone who speaks Nepali, Spanish or another language and could become a vital interpreter at the right time. Someone on a search and rescue team in Alaska, or anywhere in the world. Perhaps even someone with special knowledge of a particular range of mountains.
We need those contacts, and we need your help to get them. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think could be a reliable contact and ask them to volunteer to be "on-call" for an emergency situation. We'll be setting up command centers in Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Peru and other South American countries where information can be gathered and used to save a life, or to bring relief to a grieving family. Please help us build this network.
Forward this newsletter here
Travel with The Mountain Fund
by MF See the World - Trek4Good
2007 will be a banner year for volunteer trips with The Mountain Fund. We are hosting two trips to Peru and three to Nepal. Check them out. One is sure to be perfect for you.
Nepal - Gerku School - November 3 - 17, 2007. The Mountain Fund will host a work team for the reconstruction of the school in the village of Gerkhu. The school serves approximately 100 children in the area but has fallen into serious disrepair. The Mountain Fund work teams will spend two weeks bringing the buildings back to useable and safe conditions.
Cost of this trip is only $1,000 and includes virtually all of your in-country expenses such as hotels, transportation, food, tents, etc. Airfare to Nepal is not included. Our sponsor Himalayan Travel will arrange your flights at very good prices.
Peru - Medical Assistance - July 9 - 23. Not far from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, The Mountain Fund partner, Reach out Children's Fund, has been key in improving education and educational facilities for the 250 students attending the Huilloc school. Recently, we were informed of the dire medical needs of these children. The following message was sent to us by the Reach Out Children's Fund.
"The biggest battle for us is health care. The children never see a doctor and have yet to see a dentist. The biggest issues in the village are: dysentery, broken bones, infected teeth, cataracts and frostbite due to the high altitude."
In July 2007, The Mountain Fund will host a trip to Peru to offer medical care and assistance to these children. The 16 day trip will include a tour of the Inca sites, including Machu Pichuu.
Cost of this trip is only $1,800 and includes airfare from Lima to Cusco, hotels, transportation, entrance fees to the Inca sites and breakfast most days.
Nepal - Moving Medical Camp - October 11-26. Rural Nepal is reachable only on foot. 80% of Nepal is rural and an agrarian society. 85% of Nepali people have no access to healthcare. The average income in Nepal is only $200 a year. Constructing physical clinics and staffing them is costly. Finding trained staff isn't always easy, and due to the remote areas in which clinics need to be located, finding staff who will stay and live in rural villages is a challenge.
We have organized a moving medical camp to provide basic healthcare and medical treatment, and to begin to survey and collect data needed to ascertain the long term health and public health needs of these rural villages.
Our volunteer medical team will trek deep into the rural countryside on the Tamang Heritage Trail and bring along with us the equipment and supplies needed to stay several days in a village and conduct health clinics. The clinics will address simple health matters (i.e. basic eye, ear, nose and throat exams), provide basic treatment on the spot and refer those needing ongoing care to clinics in the region or regional hospitals. Some of the most common health problems in the area are acute respiratory infections and intestinal worms. We will address these issues to the extent possible, and refer severe cases to the clinic or hospital for follow up.
We will have a real focus on disease prevention and conduct public health training to the villages as well as hand out soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other disease preventing products like these.
We will gather information, for the first time ever as far as we know, on the general health condition of people in remote villages so that health concerns in the area are documented.
On this trip, you will see the beautiful countryside of Nepal as well as many of the unique and exciting sites around Kathmandu.
Cost of this trip is $1000 and includes virtually all of your in-country expenses such as hotels, transportation, food, tents, etc. Airfare to Nepal is not included. Our sponsor Himalayan Travel will arrange your flights at very good prices.
Peru - Micro-finance. - September 12- 25, 2007. The Mountain Fund will repeat the popular Ausangate Trek Fund Raiser for our micro-finance program in Cusco. Last year we had five guests and a great time. All profits go to Aynikuy, the street vendor loan program we have in Peru.
This two week trip takes in all of the sites around Cusco and the Sacred Valley including Machu Pichuu. Then, we trek for 7 days in the high Andes around an incredible and sacred mountain. We'll even kayak glacial lakes at 15,000 feet.
Cost for this awesome adventure is $2250 per person and includes airfare from Lima to Cusco, transportation, hotels, breakfast most every day and entrance to Machu Pichuu. Of course, the trek also includes guides, horses, all meals, first-class Mountain Hardwear tents, and the best cook and arrerios in all of Peru. See more at here
Nepal - Moving Dental and Vision Clinic - August 2007. The Mountain Fund is hosting a two-week moving dental and vision clinic in the remote Rasuwa district of Nepal. Starting at the Karing for Kids clinic in Goljung, we'll trek the entire Tamang Heritage Trail and stop every other day to set up a health clinic. Volunteers with dental experience and vision testing/treatment experience will spend the entire day treating anyone that comes in the door. Then, we pack up and repeat the clinic in the next village up the trail. Mountain Hardwear generously provided us with tents needed for this clinic including the main portable clinic itself, a giant Mountain Hardwear Space Station.
If you are a dentist, dental student, dental worker or opthomologist, optomistrist or other eye specialist, please join us on this trip.
Cost of this trip is only $1,000 and includes virtually all of your in-country expenses such as hotels, transportation, food, tents, etc. Airfare to Nepal is not included. Our sponsor Himalayan Travel will arrange your flights at very good prices.
Read more about our Trek4Good trips here
Himalaya House Needs Your Help
by Scott Home to girls rescued from servitude in Pokhara, Nepal. himalaya house girl
Himalaya House was founded in 2003 with the purpose of creating a safe haven for disadvantaged and abandoned girls in Nepal. Girls who have spent their lifetimes in distress are now given hope for the first time, along with a second chance at the world like never before. At the gateway to the Annapurna Mountain Range, Himalaya House is home to up-to-15 girls, a Nepali housemother and visiting foreign volunteers.
In the ongoing struggle for survival of the family, girls as young as 5 or 6 are commonly bonded into sweatshop labor or domestic servitude. In exchange for their daughters, parents are promised money, support of their domestic affairs and even education and fair treatment for their children. Instead, these girls are forced to work in extremely poor environments and imprisoned in inhumane conditions. Many suffer from harassment, abuse and sexual violence. Even worse than forced labor, but for the promise of more money, family members often kidnap or bond their own kin into the sex trade. Giving them a new chance at life means giving much more than just a safe haven, beyond the affection and protection of their new family.
Some facts: Each year more than 10,000 girls between the ages of 10-18 are trafficked into the sex trade, often sold by their parents or a relative. The trafficking of young girls is on the rise. They are trafficked for domestic work, forced beggary, marriage, carpet weaving and into the sex trade. Since the beginning of the Maoist conflicts in 1996, many families are fleeing their village homes. Because of this, there is a dramatic increase in the number of girls displaced in the city areas now involved in exploitive labor sectors.
Himalaya House is devoted to creating meaningful lives and second chances for disadvantaged girls in Nepal. Only with your support are we able to continue to provide this hope. For $60 a month you can provide a home, food, clothing and an education for a young Nepali that needs your support to succeed. That's only $2.00 a day to help a young woman start a new life. Skip one trip to the espresso bar and give a girl a home and education, won't you? Himalaya House is full to capacity with no funds to feed and educate these girls.
Volunteer opportunities at home and in Nepal are available for the motivated and dedicated.
Please help!
Empowering the Women of Nepal
Sisters 3 Women's Outdoor Programs in Nepal ewn rock climbing
Empowering the Women of Nepal recently conducted rock climbing training near its center in Pokhara. A total of 18 participants were involved.
Empowering the Women of Nepal (EWN) and 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking work in partnership to promote and empower women through adventure tourism. Together they combine practical skill-based training programs with gainful employment opportunities, specifically focused in the Trekking Industry. Responding to the gross inequality of women in Nepal, EWN offers unprecedented opportunities for Nepali women to improve their quality of life.
In January, a new class began to train Nepali women to work in the trekking and outdoor industry. 29 women from 11 districts in Nepal attended the program.
Programs such as Empowering the Women of Nepal and The ClimbHigh Foundation (see next article) really need and deserve the support from all of us in the Outdoor Industry, as well as anyone who cares about the future of countries like Nepal and Uganda.
In much of the developing world, women are considered chattal. One-half of the human resources are prohibited from obtaining an education, holding a job outside the home and making a contribution to society. Programs like EWN and ClimbHigh provide hope and opportunity. Please support them. Donate to women's programs today at Mountain Fund today.
Read about women in Nepal here.
ClimbHigh Foundation Needs Sleeping Bags !
ClimbHigh Program empowers women of Uganda
The ClimbHigh Foundation is dedicated to teaching women in developing nations the skills that will enable them to benefit from climbing and trekking-related tourism. We focus our work in geographic areas where women have subordinate social status, and as a result have little or no access to education, healthcare or jobs.
Our programs enable these women to work as trekking guides and porters in their local mountains and national parks so that they can maintain an adequate, sustainable living wage and can make meaningful, long-term improvements to their quality of life. Our goal is not only to help them achieve financial independence, but also to provide a catalyst for social change in their communities.
Women that ClimbHigh has trained and helped to find jobs for need equipment to do their jobs. We are in desperate need of sleeping bags, preferably synthetic insulated ones. The women of ClimbHigh need clean sleeping bags in good condition so they can go to work in the mountains.
Please send sleeping bags to
The Mountain Fund
139 Madison NE
Albuquerque
NM
87108
Watch this great movie about ClimbHigh here
Heart and Soul
Scott What we are doing and why you should care. Heart-Soul MF Logo
One and a half years ago we started The Mountain Fund with the goal of becoming the charity that represents the heart and soul of the Outdoor Industry around the world. We had taken a long hard look at the situation and found that, on an international scale, no one was stepping up to the plate and representing outdoor sports like climbing, hiking and trekking in a way that made clear that the industry had heart and soul.
Today, there is a voice for people and companies that thrive on outdoor sports and care about how the industry looks to the people that live in the mountainous regions we enjoy so much. That voice is The Mountain Fund.
In 2006, The Mountain Fund gave out over $30,000 in grants and in-kind services to nearly 30 programs operating in 10 countries around the world. We did this with two part time staff and a total budget of just over $40,000. We also took nearly a dozen volunteers to mountain regions to help work at clinics, raise funds for a micro-finance program and assist in a project to help a small rural school.
In 2007, we will do much, much more:
* Start the Climbers' Alert Network to help families of climbers and adventure travellers make it through hard times.
* Our health clinics in Nepal will provide care to over 9,000 people.
* Our micro-finance program in Peru will enable dozens of families to start and sustain a business.
* Our partnership with CutandPaste web labs will provide job training for promising young people in Peru.
* Our volunteer center in Kathmandu will bring hundreds of volunteers together with the groups that need them.
* Our volunteer trips will bring healthcare and assistance to the most remote villages in Nepal and Peru.
* Our support of women's programs will provide opportunity to dozens of women.
* Our support of youth programs will open doors for hundreds of at-risk youth.
* Our backpack and sleeping bag recycle programs will put tons of gear back to good use.
* Our support of environmental programs will help our planet to survive and sustain us all.
We are The Mountain Fund. We are your humanitarian voice around the world. We appreciate your support. Together we can, and will, go further.
Thank you!
Donate
Couriers needed to Nepal and Tanzania
by IMEC Porter Gear Stuck in the US
Carry clothing to Nepal or Tanzania: The IMEC Porter Project is always looking for people and companies who will carry clothing to Nepal and Africa, please contact us if you know anyone who can help. You will be met at the airport by a representative and gain a ride to your hotel into the bargain.
For more details email info@hec.org.
Visit IMEC
Recycle, Reuse and Pass on the Passion
MF Announcing Gear4Good at The Mountain Fund recycle globe
In the introduction to this issue of our newsletter, we told you about our partnership with Osprey Packs to "Pass on the Passion". Under the Osprey program, you can get a 10% rebate on a brand new Osprey pack by sending your old (clean and usable) pack to The Mountain Fund. We'll get your old pack back into service for someone who needs it at home or abroad. You'll also be keeping your old pack out of a landfill and help the planet at the same time.
We also told you about the need for the ClimbHigh women to have sleeping bags in this issue. Now that ClimbHigh has made the effort to blaze the trail and find employment and training for these Ugandan women, we need to help outfit them for the task. As was the case with your pack, you are keeping your old sleeping bag out of the landfill and helping our planet too.
Building on the two ideas above, The Mountain Fund has reserved the URL's for www.Gear4Good.org and www.Gear4Good.com. With help from our industry partners, we aim to offer up the opportunity to have all of your used outdoor gear wind up supporting good causes and getting a second life with people who really need it.
In the U.S., there are dozens of at-risk youth outdoor programs who can use packs, sleeping bags, boots, outerwear, hats and gloves. Porter programs in Nepal, Peru and Tanzania always need good sturdy gear. Search and rescue teams in developing countries need the same.
Turn your out-of-date apparel into something good - yes, send us that green and pink Gore-tex jacket you wore in the '80s along with that screaming yellow Colorado suit you used to ice climb in. Last year's hot trail running shoes are much needed by porters, as well as those way out-of-date plastic boots you are still climbing in.
The Mountain Fund will find second homes for your used gear, and if we can't, we'll list it on our E-bay charity auction site and turn it into cash to support all of our programs.
We are actively seeking industry partners to help us launch a full-scale program to recycle the tons of used outdoor gear that is going to landfills instead of to good causes. If your company would like to pioneer this project with us. Please contact mtnfund@mountainfund.org
Your Cause-related Marketing Budget
Scott Why The Mountain Fund is your best buy. cause market
With the Outdoor Retailer Show coming up this week we thought we should do a follow up to last issue's article called "Building a better playground." In that article, we highlighted the response by consumers to cause-related marketing as reported in a coleection of studies. The results were:
* 8 in 10 Americans say corporate support of causes wins their trust in that company.
* 86% of Americans are likely to switch brand allegiance to one associated with a charitable cause.
* 72% of Americans prefer working for a company that supports charities.
Clearly, cause-related marketing and partnerships with socially responsible causes adds value to your products. Below, we will demonstrate why The Mountain Fund represents the best option for your cause-related marketing dollars. When compared to the other leading charities supported by the Outdoor Industry, The Mountain Fund reaches a far more diverse consumer market with a globally reaching cause.
First, the case for The Mountain Fund:
* Demographic reach covers entire outdoor industry, including climbers, hikers, backpackers and international travelers.
* Geographic reach includes several domestic programs and nearly 30 programs in 11 countries.
* Topic/Cause appeal: the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, women's equality, healthcare, children and at- risk youth, education, environmental and cultural preservation, wildlife, human rights, responsible tourism, micro-finance, outdoor gear recycling and outdoor search and rescue support.
The other leading charitable causes supported primarily by the Outdoor Industry:
* Demographic: Narrow subset of the Outdoor Industry; climbers only.
* Geographic: U.S. interest only
* Topic/Cause: Issues commonly of relevance to climbers only; even then, only certain narrow issues.
So, for you companies reading this at O.R., go have a word with your marketing department. If you want to reach more people, associate with more causes and expand your reach globally, The Mountain Fund can make your marketing dollars work harder for you.
Visit our site today to learn more about us.
Newsletter Sponsor
dan mazur
This newsletter is brought to you through the generous team at Dan Mazur's SummitClimb.com.
Vist SummitClimb today
Climber's Alert Network - UPDATE
new climb aid
Climbers' Alert Network takes it's first action.
A couple of weeks ago, an event was held in Telluride to commemorate the lives of Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff. Climbers' Alert Network via The Mountain Fund was very pleased to be able to pay the cost of airfare for members of Charlie's and Chritine's family to attend the event and witness the friendships and the community that Charlie and Chris were part of.
This is how it should be. We are a community.
Contact Information
email: mtnfund@mountainfund.org
phone: 800-743-1929
web: http://www.mountainfund.org
