The Truckee Himalayan Exchange Literacy Program (Truckee HELP) is a small community program started by a group of Truckee High School students. In the fall of eighth grade, we traveled to Nepal to go trekking in the Everest region. We immediately fell in love with the incredibly friendly community that reminded us of our own mountain town. Upon returning back to the United States, we kept a correspondence going with our new Sherpa friends while beginning to think of ways the people of Nepal and Truckee could learn and gain from each other. After a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated much of the country we knew we had to do something. We raised over $6000 to help our Sherpa guide rebuild his home in Pangboche Village. The Truckee HELP team is now trying to raise more funds to establish an ongoing program between Truckee High School and the Khumjung School of Nepal.
Our plans with the money are two fold. First, we want to bring tablet computers to the Khumjung students so that we can establish communication channels between our two schools. Second, we want to work with Truckee High School students to do an annual community service project in Nepal, beginning this year with a cultural exchange. We want to establish an aid fund that can help to send our students to Nepal and also to hopefully bring some of their students here one day. Continual communication, mountain to mountain, will help the Nepalese students learn English, a crucial element in maintaining the Himalayan tourism economy. Meanwhile, Truckee students will gain irreplaceable world perspective. This exchange is possible through the Amazon Fire HD 7 tablets that your generous donations will fund!
Thanks for your time and help,
Calin Laine, Zach Larson, and Patrick Sullivan
Truckee HELP
To make a donation please go to ==>> Himalayan Exchange Literacy Program
Zach Larson, Calin Laine, and Dasonam Sherpa's son Nyima at Dingboche Village, home to the families of the Sherpa's who guide trekkers up the HImalaya's and central location of the school.
Jonathan Laine and his son Sawyer on a rest stop on the
trail on the initial visit to the Himalaya's.
Our guide, Dasonam Sherpa, pictured here with his wife, granddaughter, mother, and son.
Zachary Larson and Calin Laine enjoy some well earned time off and rest after their successful introduction of the Internet and computing to the students of Dingboche Village, Nepal.
They are already planning a return visit next summer to bring more computers and more high speed Internet equipment to the village after some more intensive money raising activities back home in Truckee, California high in the mountains of the Sierra's of northern California.
