When Urken Sherpa’s children were of school age, she made a difficult decision. Her village, which lay on the main trekking path to Mt. Everest, was a three-hour walk to the nearest school – too far for her children to walk each day. Having never been educated herself, Urken Sherpa was determined to see her children have the educational opportunities she did not.

Urken Sherpa decided to send her children, then five and seven years old, to Kathmandu, where they have attended boarding school for the last ten years. While her children are well prepared to pass the Nepali School Leaving Certificate exam as a result of their education, she wonders whether making the choice to send them away meant the dissolution of her family. She sees her children once every six months and worries that they will not want to return to live in their village after experiencing the comforts and excitement of city life.

Approximately one in three Sherpa children spends their formative years in a Kathmandu boarding school separated from family and friends.  Steeped in Hindu culture, Nepali language and education these children risk alienation from the Sherpa community and culture. Additionally, the national educational curriculum does little to prepare Sherpa children for success in agriculture and tourism, the two major sectors of the Sherpa economy. Because there are few other career options for young people in the Solu-Khumbu region, many of the best and the brightest ultimately decide not to come home.

To help families like Urken Sherpa’s avoid having to make such sacrifices, the Everest Foundation created the Sherpa Heritage Model School, a boarding school in Solu-Khumbu that offers the region an option to send children to a quality school near home. The school curriculum emphasizes Sherpa history and culture and provides vocational training in tourism, mountaineering, farming, forestry, food and lodge management, and economics.  School holidays are designed around the agricultural calendar and Sherpa festivals. Initially, the school educated 60 students.  Ultimately, the school has the capacity to enroll 350-400 students from the Solu-Khumbu region.

The Everest Foundation and Himalayan Explorers Connection are seeking donations to help continue funding the project and to provide scholarships to children who would otherwise be unable to attend the Sherpa Model School.  If you would like to help or are interested in learning more, please contact us at info@mountainexplorers.org