If you've travelled to Nepal, and fallen in love with its people, and have a desire to help them, now you can. The Mountain Fund has a visitor center in Kathmandu that assists people in finding an appropriate place to volunteer, and supports them while they are volunteering. Our staff in Kathmandu can help make any volunteer experience go more smoothly by taking care of in-country travel arrangements, housing and home-stay accommodations, airport pick up and a host of other logistic needs that volunteers might have.
Volunteerism accounts for 5% of Nepal’s GNP. This is a staggering number when you stop to consider it, and we think the surface has barely been scratched for what’s possible. With peace in the country, Nepal can soon expect tourist visits to reach nearly 500,000 people per year. A great many of these visitors come to trek or climb the beautiful mountain regions of Nepal. It seems to happen quite often, however, that once a trekker sees Nepal and enjoys the awesome hospitality of the Nepali people, he or she is suddenly moved and motivated to spend a few days doing some volunteer work.
Until the creation of The Mountain Fund's Visitor Information Center, finding a short term volunteer position was difficult. There are thousands of NGOs (nonprofit organizations) and it was difficult if not impossible for the short term volunteer to locate, contact and actually give some time to an organization all in one trip.
Now, The Visitor Information Center provides a single source of contact for immediate placement in a volunteer capacity for almost any interested tourist. You can walk into our beautiful center, choose something that interests you, complete an application and be introduced that same day to a local organization which needs your help. The Center is truly a unique and innovative program which we’ve launched with the financial assistance of the Tessa Horan Memorial Fund. Tessa was a Peace Corps Volunteer at the time when she died, and so helping to fund a project which encourages volunteerism seems a fitting tribute to her.
The Center has moved to a new location in Thamel, and we are now located across the street from KEEP, or Kathmandu Environmental Education Project. The new location is twice the size of our old one and has free internet for volunteers, a comfortable "hang out" area, coffee and tea prepared by Kul Bahadhur the former porter who lost half of both feet to frostbite while portering. We've even added a small cafe space for Kul's Coffee where you can now site and enjoy a cup of real coffee !
We can even arrange for homestay with a local family for those wishing to understand the lives of Nepali people in more depth. Hours of operation in the off season are 10am til 5pm from Monday through Friday. In the trekking seasons we are also open on Saturday. If you are traveling to Nepal, please come by, see our center and say hello to the staff.
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If you’d like more information about this article, please contact the author at jenn@mountainfund.org
