Introduction

Himalayan Adventure Girls is a non-profit organisation with the unique purpose of encouraging Nepali women to participate in the outdoors industry as guides and instructors. Tourism has become one of the most important forms of income generation in Nepal and yet women in general continue to play little part.  Since its founding in 2008, our organisation has sought to provide professional training and to create opportunities for Nepali women to gain meaningful employment in the outdoors industry.

Today, several Nepali ladies have gained the necessary skills and experience to work as professional guides. These young ladies have pushed themselves to excel as raftguides, trekking guides, kayakers and mountainbikers. Many have even competed in whitewater kayaking competitions, the first Nepali women to ever do so! However, as women they continue to have limited opportunities in Nepal and while they seek to continue their training it is our goal to provide them new kinds of opportunities and to make sure new girls get encouragement and training.

Background

Nepal is one of the most famous countries in the world for whitewater rafting and kayaking. With the high Himalayas guaranteeing yearly snowmelt and monsoon rains feeding rivers through the numerous and beautiful valleys, Nepal is a perfect playground for kayakers and rafters of all kinds. Inka Trollsås first came to Nepal from Sweden more than ten years ago and is one of the many Western kayakers who return every year. However, she soon began getting frustrated that 100% of the river guides were male. In 2008 she met three Nepali girls who asked her to teach them kayaking and the idea for Himalayan Adventure Girls was formed.

There are currently over 100 rafting companies registered in Nepal. Initially most of the river guides, kayak instructors and safety kayakers were westerners. However, over the past decades Nepal has developed a strong rafting and kayaking community of Nepali guides. The many challenging rivers in Nepal have helped Nepali guides develop unusually competent river skills making them sought after and respected guides worldwide. In particular, Nepali guides often get offered work in countries like Norway, Iceland, Japan, Turkey and Bhutan. Recently Nepalis have even begun competing on the International level at the annual Himalayan Whitewater Challenge, some even continuing on to the worldchampionships.

Until Inka and her girls began Himalayan Adventure Girls, 100% of theNepali river guides and instructors were male. This project provides the much needed opportunity for ladies to gain employment as guides as well.

Vision

For most women in Nepal the expectation is that they will get married young and spend the rest of their married lives at home looking after their families. But, for many a job as a guide in the rafting or trekking industry is a good opportunity for an amazing change in their lives, perhaps a way out of misery, poverty or boredom. Whatever their background, the idea of this project is to empower Nepali women to work with tourists (especially female tourists). Ultimately we would like to see Nepali women travelling the world: kayaking, raft guiding, competing in international kayaking events, and using their newly acquired professional skills.

Activities

Every year a new group of girls is selected from interested applicants to join an introductory training program focused on rafting and kayaking but can just as well lead to other adventure fields. The program is designed to introduce the girls to basic river skills such as swimming, kayaking and rafting, but also features an additional focus on confidence building and English proficiency. The girls are taught about the tourism industry in Nepal with special attention paid to practising professionalism. If they complete the training, they are then given the opportunity to start work experience with a rafting company which can often lead to an employment offer if the girl is enjoying her new work and doing well.

In addition to the introductory training, Himalayan Adventure Girls also strives to organise one or two more advanced week long training camps every year. These camps give all the ladies a chance to get together to practice their river skills and share their experiences. The girls are encouraged to use English as much as possible to practice talking through their safety protocols, using English river terminology, and expressing themselves in a professional and friendly way. Outside of these training camps we provide English classes, first aid classes, and a chance for the girls to get their WRT (Whitewater Rescue Techniques) certification.  When opportunity comes they will also get a chance to join tourists on trekking trips in the mountains. Recently we have also worked with the International Canoe Federation to send some of our girls abroad to sporting events such as the World Championships in Canoe Slalom held in Spain in 2009, the World Championships of Canoe Freestyle held in Switzerland in 2009, and a canoe slalom training camp held in Thailand in 2010.

Goal

The goal of Himalayan Adventure Girls is that we in a few years time will see a strong community of experienced Nepali females working as outdoor guides. A talented team with the best training and experiences possible in all outdoor adventure fields linked to Nepali tourism. A team who work together to constantly update their skills and gain new competences. Senior adventure girls will be training junior girls. Finally, we expect that the Nepali ladies have made an international reputation for themselves by supporting their participation in national and international athletic competitions as well as doing seasonal guidework abroad. 

The organizations

The NGO Himalayan Adventure Girls is registered in Kathmandu, Nepal. There are seven Nepali girls on the board. The NGO in Nepal closely works with Swedish organization PeaceWorks Sweden, a youth organization with more than 3000 members. Our goal is a sustainable world in peace where young people are active members of the society. Fokus Asien aims to provide a platform within PeaceWorks where members are given the opportunity to engage in Asia-related issues. Our future goal is to bring together dedicated young people who want to do something concrete in order to improve an issue or problematic situation in Asia. Through our project River of Rights we want to contribute to the strengthening of the position of women in Nepal by supporting Himalayan Adventure Girls in their work. We believe that empowerment is a cornerstone that needs to be developed further and by providing girls with an education that will result in a job, and hence an income, the situation for Nepali girls will improve. 

Read more about Fokus Asien on: www.fokusasien.com

and more about PeaceWorks on: www.peaceworks.se

How you can help

1. Make a donation. We need help to pay for insurances, first aid, rescue courses etc. Click on the donate button to pay by Pay Pal or contact us of you would like to send money in a different way.

2. Come to Nepal. Bring some equipment for the club. Learn kayaking with our girls, or teach our new girls kayaking!

Equipment that we need:

Sleeping bags, camping mats, any camping gear, kayaks, paddles, any kayak equipment of good quality size small.

Training program in Sweden Aug / Sep 2012

The girls in Nepal have made a wish - they want to visit Sweden! As the most professional guides in Nepal are the ones who have been abroad and visited the western world - we would  like the girls to get this chance. Therefore we have made a plan for a 2-week program in Sweden  for  seven of the most active and hard working Adventure Girls. 

In the program the girls will:

• Learn about Swedish culture, hygiene and cooking 
  
• Attend a workshop on womens rights and the environment
• Receive training in canoe slalom
  
• Try different kinds of adventure sports
  
• Practise English and make presentations of themselves and Nepal

Contact

For questions in general about the project, sponsoring, helping etc, contact Inka: inka@farawayadventures.com / 0046 73 814 05 70 / 00977 9841 347 977

To contact the Nepali girls, contact Radha: 00977 9803381161 or Ritu: 00977 9803885368

Thanks to

The following people and companies have helped to make this project successful:

 (in no particular order)

Henrik Lernmark, Jamie McGuinness, Tomas Torsein, Richard Fox,Jenny Körlin, Stefan Erdman,    addnature.com, Molly McKeon, Rosa Matheson, Wilda Nilsson, Fluid Kayaks, GRG´s Adventure Kayaking, Alternative Nepal, PeaceWorks, Hooghuis Sportservice, Malin Lidberg, Ms Baidya, Pierrick Gosselin, Lions ClubSollentuna, Daz / Pure Land Expeditions, Ashley Courtney, River People Stuff, ICF, Aquabound, Square Rock, Silva Sweden, Kajaktiv AB, Nookie, Fiskarhedenvillan, XLENT Strategy, Equator Expeditions, Skirtworks, Ultimate Descents Nepal, KAVU, Rapid Runner Expeditions, Lars Larsson, Royal Beach, Sander Barten, Simon Eriksson, Tomas Karlsson, Paddle Nepal, Ganesh KayakShop, H.R.G.A.N.Fergs  Kayaks, ProTec Helmets, Nodan Club, Carve Designs, Icebreaker, Josh Neilson, KEEN, Cumec, Uppsala Paddlarklubb, North Water, damerna på KI, Sofia Tranaeus, Storm Freeman, Anna Brown, Amandas Intima, Ultimate Rivers, Chandra Ale, Himlayan Ecstasy, Agneta, Lena, Marie-Louise, Chianti Quinn, Adrenalin Rush, Nepal River Conservation Trust, Shai River rafting, Rainwater Activities, NARA, Ben Love at Paddles Magazine (UK), Karin&Magnus Trollsås, Ian Roberts at Adventure Element, Malin Bergman at MestFors, Megh Ale, N.R.C.T. Francesca Garibaldi, the NZ girl power team, the Swedish girlpower team, Whitney Hansen, Becky Smith, Gerry Moffat, Monica Gokey, Christie Glissmeyer, Cecilia, Sonja, Jill Marie Stokes, Eco Treks, Naresh Kumar, Churamani Aryal, Alison Homer, Ashley Cortney, Liza Negriff, Jeff Empfield, Jennifer Duin, Ville Arkonkoski, Kristin Waplan & Andu, Kelly Maya Magar, Peak UK, tidingen Outside and all the kayaking boys in Nepal who are encouraging and helping teaching the girls.