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 FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
I was born in 1964 in a remote village called Mushey in Solukhumbu situated on the gateway to Mt. Everest. I learnt mountaineering from my father Phuri Galzen Sherpa and as I am a Sherpa woman, mountaineering and tourism is in my blood. I started my career at a very early age of thirteen. I like my job very much because it is not only entertaining but also one gets the golden opportunity to meet people from different cultures from all over the world. Thus, mountaineering and tourism is the best industry for a women like me.
So, to support my hobby and talent I established Sherpa & Swiss Adventure agency with my brother. But I always wanted to help our underprivileged women of Nepal with the support from occidental women. Thus Adventure Sisters was born. I want to unite occidental and oriental sisters to share our rich tradition and culture. We women have the will power, inner strength and hospitalities more than men. But in our society women are neglected and pushed back so much especially in an undeveloped country like Nepal. Women are busy doing household chores and men are responsible to look after the financial aspects of the family. One man has to work for all the members of the house ranging from ten or more. We don’t have social security system. So men have to work hard to feed their family members. But women cannot work outside because of the social restrictions and are not in a position to help their male partner financially. This tendency develops a split between the relationship of husband and wife which ultimately leads to domestic violence. Women are helpless to support their male partner financially, which hinders the prosperity of the family. Some times this encourages the man to marry a second wife, which they think might help them to gain financial benefits. But in reality this does not solve the problem but brings more trouble. And this is the root cause of domestic violence.
So the only way out is equal opportunity to women too. They should be given the opportunity to proper education and allowed to work along with men. They should be given equal pay; rights and all other incentives men are entitled to. So this is the fault of the socio- economic culture of the country. Thus we have to plan women welfare schemes, which will help them to be educated and uplift their status in the society. They should be provided with the opportunity to develop skill based trainings.
Thus Adventure Sister’s philosophy is not only to promote tourism and create job opportunities but also to educate the deprived women so that they can become self-dependent and work on their own for the betterment of the society. Adventure Sisters can share their practical experience with these women so that they can enhance their outlook and join hand in hand with women working force.
Adventure sisters invest part of their profit to train such women through government-guided tourism/mountaineering training centers and later recruit them as guides. Our staff are well qualified and experienced through years of adventure activities.
So it is high time to work together to empower the women of the society so that they can work shoulder to shoulder with men to bring prosperity in the society.
Thus we at Adventure Sisters are working for a noble cause — Empowering Women for Professional Development!
Sincerely
Lhakphuti Sherpa |
