He carries loads up to 30kg, works without insurance and medical treatment and spends his nights sleeping in the open or in caves.[break]
In warm teahouses and trekking lodges, few brand-name-wearing tourists are aware of the dangers their porters face. With thousands of foreign trekkers arriving each year, porters are on the frontline of Nepali tourism, and yet their working conditions are sure to surprise visitors and tourists alike.
So, driven to do something to help, American Ben Ayers set up the Porters Clothing Bank, and this is run by the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project (KEEP) since 2009. In this short time, they have lent more than 500 porters clothing and helped hundreds more through their education programs.
According to KEEP Director D.B. Gurung, “a lot of porters die every year in the mountains because they don’t have adequate clothing and proper care. In the cool temperatures and snow, a lot of porters have lost their fingers and toes.”
There seems to be a myth around porters that because they carry such huge loads, they are immune to getting sick in the mountains. In reality, most are subsistence-level farmers living in low-lying areas, unused to high altitudes and extreme temperatures, and can’t afford the necessary clothing and equipment for their jobs.
Just one accident or a bout of altitude sickness can mean the end of a porter’s trekking season, sending him home to his family empty-handed.
To combat these problems, the clothing bank rents out whole outfits to individuals and trekking companies for a small fee. This includes warm jackets, pants, boots, sunglasses and gloves. While many tourists give porters clothing as gifts, this usually doesn’t help in the way they intend, as the porters sell the items to make additional money.
KEEP has collected donated items from all over the world, but while they are happy to accept items both in their Thamel and Lukla branches, they warn that many foreign clothes are too big for Nepali people. So if people want to help, making a donation is the best option.
Andrew Todman from Melbourne, Australia, has just returned from his trek to the Everest Base Camp and was surprised at the way he saw some porters being treated.
“I thought I was reasonably fit, but I couldn’t believe the loads the porters were carrying. They didn’t seem to be carrying any clothes or sleeping bags of their own, carrying our bags was enough” he said.
He was also surprised to see porters sleeping in basic conditions, but he did notice that some were dressed more warmly than others.
“It can get really cold, especially at night, in the mountains. I saw some porters wearing only thin pants and t-shirts. I don’t know how they do it,” he said.
The Porters Clothing Bank also runs programs for the porters on first-aid, altitude sickness awareness and hygiene to prevent them from becoming sick in the first place. Their goal is to empower porters, so they see themselves as skilled workers and thus demand the proper treatment from their employers.
KEEP urges tourists to make sure their porters are ethically treated, and it is up to them to hold their trekking companies accountable. Both trekking companies and individual tourists are encouraged to make use of the Clothing Bank, which has the goal of helping up to 1,000 porters.
Although still only a small organization, the Clothing Bank has shown that a good idea can make a huge difference. It also offers a sustainable way for foreign trekkers to repay the porters without whom they couldn’t have trekked in the high Nepal Himalaya.
Related story
My fairy godmother in 'Cinderella' is non-conforming: Billy Por...
