Trek Overview

This is an invitational trek in support of Nepal Schools Aid, the UK charity, who are in partnership with the management consultancy Enterprise Learning.

Taking place in October 2011, the trek takes approximately 14 days and reaches an altitude of 18,500 ft on the summit of Kala Pataar overlooking Everest Base Camp. Organisation is by Sherpa Expeditions and the trek will be led by Dr Brian Metters (NSA Trustee Chairman) who has led numerous treks in Nepal and climbed a number of 6000m+ peaks.

Our goal

Nepal, contains eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, but it is the poorest nation in Asia. 39% of its population are children under 14 years and it is they who are really suffering from the effects of the country’s poverty.....Our aim is to trek to the peaks of Nepal "to improve the Children of Nepal’s lives, through Education".

Nepal Schools Aid is a small, focused organisation which works very hard developing schools leadership, providing educational materials such as textbooks and exercise books, and delivering an annual teacher development programmes in Kathmandu. These are the fundamentals to helping children get the opportunity to a brighter future, one which is not begging, malnutrition or worse.

We plan to raise a minimum of £10,000 for the charity which will be spent on computerising 1-2 of our schools in Kathmandu. We have four of our seven schools ready for such development, so £40,000 is the ultimate summit!

In our Basics Programme to our 7 schools in Kathmandu you might like to know what a typical donation buys:



  • £25 buys 200 exercise books, enough for 8 children for a whole year

  • £35 buys 8 school bags

  • £50 buys 25 textbooks to be shared by a number of classes

  • £100 pays a teacher's salary for one month

    To make a donation please click on the trekker of your "choice" on the left and you will be taken to our secure donations site where you can complete your payment.

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Back from Kathmandu


At last, a little breathing space after a hectic April in Kathmandu running a teacher training conference and working around our seven schools. This was a “watershed” month for us with 40 teachers attending for 8 days with implementation plans being created in a number of crucial areas such as lesson planning and values based education. We have now started to tightly manage our schools with the concept of “climb the ladder of implementation to qualify for computers” being the basis of supervision, monitoring and communication. In fact the schools will be inspected in October to objectively assess who gets the computers! So, your donations are well focused and protected. We are currently getting final costings for the whole project and I will write this up as news when I have the figures.
From a trek viewpoint I had several meetings with the new owner of Sherpa Expeditions, the son of the previous owner, in which we thrashed out internal flight bookings, fixed costs, and which guide(s) I would have for the trek. The owner himself is leading it so I guess we got a good deal in the end. 
One small disappointment was the sheer volume of festivals being held during our days in Kathmandu which will prevent Gary and John from doing any work either in the schools or with teachers in groups. Never mind, they'll just have to come back next April for our annual training programme!
Brian
NSA Chairman

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

London to Brighton Cycle Ride 19 June 2011

Brian and Gary together with Tom Storer and their friends Ian and Seb Masters have signed up for the annual London to Brighton cycle ride on 19 June. This is an annual fundraising bike ride from Clapham Common down to Madeira Drive, Brighton. 27,000 cyclists travel the 56 miles for this good cause, culminating in a buzzing atmosphere on Brighton seafront. All funds raised will go towards the Trek - it's a shame we can't take the bikes to Everest!!!

To sponsor the Riders, visit Nepal Schools Aid Riders .