Legacy of education opens doors

By TIM WATKIN

Pasang Geljeu Sherpa's face lights up when he shares his thoughts about Sir Edmund Hillary.

Pasang met Hillary five years ago when he visited Chaurikharka school at the foot of the Himalayan mountain range.

"I liked him very much," he says.

The 17-year-old has every reason to like Hillary. If it wasn't for the New Zealander, he would probably not be getting an education.

Hillary's Himalayan Trust built the school in 1964, expanding it to a lower secondary school in 1980 and a secondary in 1989.

While Pasang lives in Chaurikharka, some of his classmates walk two hours to and from school each day, grasping the opportunity to get an education in one of the world's poorest countries.

Pasang's rough stone classroom is 10m long and he is squashed onto a bench, working at a desk shared with four other boys.

His classmates are shy, reluctant to answer questions, but he beams a smile, stands up and shares, in the halting English he has learned during nine years at school, what he knows about Hillary.

Sir Edmund and Tenzing Norgay were the first to climb Mt Everest, Pasang says. The pair climbed from Nepal.

Hillary helped to build the school and provides books and pens, he adds.

Learning about Hillary is not part of the curriculum, but these children know that without him there would be no curriculum.

Pasang's school day starts at 10am with exercises and a roll call, and goes to 4pm.

Not unusually in these parts, his father lives and works in Japan as a mountain guide, sending money home to his family.

Pasang, the eldest of three children, wants to be a social worker when he leaves school at the end of next year.

Chaurikharka old-boy Pasang Dawa Sherpa is a success story. He went to the school for five years after it opened in 1964.

Mr Sherpa is now a successful businessman, having set up Sherpa Adventure Travel 20 years ago. He is married to a Canadian and lives in Kathmandu.

When he started school there were just 25 primary pupils and one teacher gathered in the one room. Chaurikharka now has 288 pupils and a rapidly growing roll.

"If not for Sir Edmund Hillary I would be up in the mountains because there was no other chance for me to go to school."

THE EVEREST APPEAL


To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ascent of Everest and in recognition of the life's work of Sir Edmund Hillary in bringing education to the Sherpas, the Herald is running a campaign to raise money for one of the schools he helped to build in Nepal.

Chaurikharka school hopes to build a computer room and another classroom.

APPEAL DETAILS

Donations can be sent to:

The Nepalese School Fund Appeal

Editorial Department

New Zealand Herald

PO Box 706, Auckland