Welcome to the Mountain Porter Blog

I have created this blog for posting and discussing articles and comments on men and women, who work as porters, particularly in the trekking trade in Nepal, Tanzania and Peru. These people need your help. They work very hard for little money. All day they carry loads up and down mountains, so tourists can see Everest, Machu Pichuu, Kilimanjaro, etc.

How can you help? Support IMEC, Porters Progress, IPPG and, of course, The Mountain Fund. These are the groups working hard to change the unfair and oppressive conditions under which porters labor around the world. Thanks, Scott - The Mountain Fund

Wanted news and views on porters worldwide

Im already bored with the sound of my own keyboard and invite you to post comments or news yourself. If you want me to do it for you email contact@ippg.net
Jim

Indian Inspiration

Raja, a young Indian mountain guide became IPPG's first representative last year and has now organized the opening of a simple shelter and first aid post for porters in the Gangotri region at the source of the Ganges river.
Porters carry for pilgrims, trekkers and expeditions and have usually been left to fend for themselves. In September Raja and his friends will set up a tented post at Bhujibas.
For more on this simple yet effective action go to:

http://ippg.net/BhujbasPorterShelterProject.html

Nepalese porter organization splits

Some years ago Ben Ayers, a young American from the USA, started a radical experiment in porter empowerment by setting up Porters Progress Nepal (PPN) based in Katmandu. This became a leading light in educating porters, village initiatives and putting clothing on their backs when they ventured up the hill with loads. With porters on the board of directors this became a highly regarded outfit and so it remains to this day.
Only....
Ben has gone his separate way with some of his staff and started Porters Progress Sagarmatha (PPS) based on the clothing bank in Lukla.
The reasons for the split are unclear and probably best left so. But we now have two NGOs with similar aims and working with the same group of people. The only difference is that PPN is totally porter led and while this is quite admirable their lack of expertise and backing is showing up.
Funding and advice is being arranged for PPN from overseas in exchange for good management and transparency.
Lets see how the porters cope in their first steps off the mountain and into the jungles of NGO land.
Good luck to both orgs!
Dr Jim

Looking back on ten years of porter activism

Its my pleasure to be asked to re-invigorate this blog on news and stories from mountain porters around the world on behalf of the mountain Fund. Lets be hearing your news and views please.
My interest in these matters started in 1997 when a young Nepali porter died on the trail has he was being brought down to our rescue post in Manang. This sad and avoidable event goaded us to form the International Porter Protection Group. What alarmed me then, as a doctor and Himalayan expeditioner over many years, was just how long it had taken me to awaken to the exploitation and vulnerability of porters employed to service tourist needs in the mountains (and by 'tourist' I include expedition members!).
Ten years later there is a much better understanding of these issues confronting the tough, proud yet oh so vulnerable men and women who earn much needed cash by carrying loads for us. Several NGOs (Community Action Nepal, International Explorers Club, Porters Progress, Tourism Concern and many more) are involved in activities ranging from educating porters, tourists and travel companies through to clothing banks and porter shelters. Many trek and travel companies have adopted best practice for the treatment of their porters and many local employers and their staff (where most of the wilful exploitation and neglect takes place) have raised their game.
Lets just pause to remember that there were always good people like Mike Cheney of Mountain Travel and later Sherpa co-op, who made sure their porters were looked after right from the beginnings of mass mountain tourism in the fifties. The difference now is that there is an unstoppable and widespread change taking place in the way mountain porters are treated worldwide.
That these changes have not filtered through to remote areas such as Irian Jiya and Papua New Guinea is just a matter of time.
Everyone who travels and treks or adventures to kyak or climb in the mountains and uses local porters needs to be aware of their needs and to complain long and loud, on the spot, at the time it is happening. Then we all become part of the movement and not a part of the problem.
Dr Jim Duff (coordinator IPPG)