Corporate Social Responsibility is an ethical ideology that companies should contribute to the welfare of the society also. Trekking Encounters is a business organization which has put an obligation to act to benefit society at large. We are doing this by avoiding engaging in socially harmful activities and performing acts that directly advance social goals. Trekking Encounters follows the responsible travel codes by employing locals, supporting community-building initiatives and so on.
Nepal is still one of the under developed countries in the world. The private sectors can play a vital role to support its people in many ways. We donate a certain percentage of our profits to the organizations working for environment, education and health services in Nepal.
Trekking Encounters also commits to reduce pollution in the environment due to impact of our customers’ visit. Therefore, we are dedicated to sustainable travel and eco-tourism. We request our customers to help us in preservation of our environment. It can be by conserving water, supporting the use of renewable resources, minimizing the use of plastic bottles and canned food. Empty bottles and cans are the major components that pollute the environment. Our guides manage with the safe and purified drinking water instead of bottled water though.
We are life member of KEEP (Kathmandu Environmental Educational Project) and are working closely in association with KEEP in environmental preservation activities as of our corporate social responsibility. KEEP has been offering training courses on nature conservation, basic and intermediate English language courses for trekking guides, porters and lodge owners as well as first aid training and eco-trekking workshops. Our guides regularly get training from KEEP on environmental protection and preservation issues. We also give awareness messages in the conservation of natural resources to the local people through our staffs.
Social involvement:
The devastating earthquake of April 25 and May 12 in 2015 and subsequent powerful aftershocks made Nepal a heavy loss of lives and property. Tourism being the backbone of national economy was greatly affected. The massive earthquake left the archaeological and heritage sites in fragile condition. As a result of this, Trekking Encounters had decided to add a brick in ‘Rebuilding Nepal’ mission.
Trekking Encounters ran Charity Treks to support the mission. Travellers were encouraged to purchase such packages that allocated certain percentage to its ‘Rebuilding Nepal’ mission. Trekking Encounters declared 10% of the trip cost to contribute to its ‘Charity Fund’. The fund was utilized to purchase books, note books, pencils, pens, bags, uniforms etc. for the children who were badly affected from the massive earthquake.
As a part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), we established a ‘Charity Fund’ for scholarships to the earthquake victimised children. The primary need of food, shelter and medicine were already provided at the government and non-government level. Furthermore, the government of Nepal was working strategically to reinstall villages in several districts and still going on. There were more areas people need our support. Children were suffering from not getting opportunities to go to their school again. This was due to loss of parent/s, family members, houses, school buildings, books, notebooks, pens, pencils, uniforms etc.
Our project name was: “Trekking Encounters Education Project” for Rebuilding Schools and Helping Children to go to School again.
In response to the above, Trekking Encounters’ Team reached to a community school based in Makwanpur district of Nepal on 23rd July, 2015. We managed to distribute school uniforms (Track Suit), note books and pencils to the children of Shree Kuteshwori Primary School. The school is located in a remote village of Agra about 100 kilometers far from Kathmandu at an altitude of 2,500 meters approximately. The School Principal, Chairperson of School Management Committee, Teachers and guardians/parents of the children were also present in the programme.
It is a primary school where children are from 5 to 14 years in play group to grade five. The geographical site is completely remote and the main crops of the people are potatoes, seasonal vegetables, maize and millet. Teachers and children have to walk for 30 minutes to one and half hour twice daily to reach the school and return home. The trail condition is very poor with many ups and downs.
We started early morning at 6AM from Kathmandu. We were five members in our team and reached there at 10:30AM. The drive was an adventurous journey to Palung and further to the school. We were greeted and warmly welcomed by the school family. It was a beautiful moment when we found ourselves among the curious children. We also felt grateful to come over to the school.
We saw many houses demolished by the devastating earthquake. The school building couldn’t remain safe either. They requested us to support the children with uniforms, notebooks and pencils. Then we distributed uniforms to 70 students. We provided a jacket and a trouser to each of the students who enrolled at the school till date. The Principal of the school, Mr. Madhu KC said there are more to come.
The Contributors:
We would like to thank our well-wishers and the contributors, Dr. Mehmet-Emin Korkmaz (Turkey), Mr. Dean Dunbar (UK), Ms. Lia Savage (Australia) and Ms. Helene Busser (France) who made this possible. There are more schools needing such support and we assure to continue our project in the future. We would also like to request our valuable clients if they are interested to be a part of this project.
Trekking Encounters ran a Charity Trek to Everest Base Camp in October, 2010.
Trekking Encounters operated a Charity Trek to the Mount Everest Base Camp. However, they were only able to reach up to Tengboche due to bad weather which kept them stuck for some days in Kathmandu. There were seven VIPs (Visually Impaired Persons) in the team namely Drew, Eddie, Fiona, Jacky, Jen, Natalie, Dean and seven UK guides Amanda, Bob, Derek, Diana, June, Linda and Rhona. The team also supported Bright Land School in Kathmandu with some stationery and books.
Above all, we send our very special thanks to Dean and Rhona who supported the school financially to build up some funds for scholarships. Trekking Encounters aims to find more opportunities in building up scholarship funds for the remote and underprivileged children of Nepal including the girls from indigenous casts. Hence, we are truly happy to take the responsibility on social welfare issues and contribute together at the corporate level.
To read more about the training and trek, and see more photos, please check out the official website – Trekking Nepal – 2010