The Pokharise Environmental & Cultural Education Excursion - September 2023

It all starts with a vision

In December 2022, three students from the Geneva Graduate Institute contacted our RLCV directors with a vision: to enable Nepali girls to experience the Himalayas. In doing so, they aimed to promote gender equality, empowering female Nepali students, passionate about the environment and cultural heritage, to learn first hand from Nepali women who have spent their careers leading mountain expeditions and socio-environmental activism. In their three words “Mountains, Equality, Environment.

We at RLCV were elated to support the initiative in any way we could. We got to work with the GGI team, now craftily named ‘Pokharise’, making connections with our environmental education partners KEEP Nepal and advising them throughout their drafting of a Davis Projects for Peace $10,000 grant. We held our breath for over a month until the announcement came in early March…we got the grant!!! The Pokharise team’s vision could now become reality.

It’s happening! Now..the hard work begins.

Over the Spring and Summer months, the three organisations (Pokharise, KEEP and RLCV) worked diligently to develop the project: from vision setting, to establishing key project impact indicators, to the student and trekking guide selection criteria.

Then came engaging public schools with interests in establishing future environmental clubs, student selection, and the reality that is the complex logistics of taking a team of 20 from Kathmandu to Pokhara, then into the Himalayan villages…then back again!

The months of hard work paid off, with the project - a women led initiative for women - kicking off last week, September 2nd, 2023.

Our RLCV participants!

We are so proud to have had 4 of our girls selected as participants, representing the Mangal Mardi Secondary School, and our class 12 superstar Bikhu attending as a chaperone . Our 4 attendees are Aayushma Buda (from Humla), Kalsha Dasal (from Dolpa), Aayushma Tamang (from Sindupalchok), and Sumitra Praja (from Chitwan, Kanda).

From left: Aayushma Tamang, Sumitra, Bikhu, Kalsha, and Aayushma Buda

What the future holds

Dreams become reality through vision, determination, and collaboration. The Pokharise project is living proof of this.

We are so thankful to have been apart of this uplifting project, and are excited to see the impact it will have both on the students and in their participating schools! We hope you enjoy the photos of the experience to date. More to come following the project’s conclusion!

We will leave you with the words of the Pokharise team, which continue to inspire us upon each read. See links below for more details!

Namaste and lots of love,
The RLCV Family

Statement from the Pokharise team -
Maëlle, Emme Perreve and Eva:

“Pokharise aims to offer young Nepalese girls a first experience of the Nepalese Himalayan mountains. The project’s aim is to combat gender inequality by fostering independence and self-reliance of disadvantaged young girls through mountain trekking, and cultural and environmental education. Ultimately, it will give them the opportunity to pursue a career as a mountain guide, an industry where women are largely under-represented.”