tashi delek
(tah-shee deh-laaay)

We think you might like to know about a project that's very important to us…

Hile' is a small Sherpa village in the Solu-Khumbu (Everest) region of Nepal. A very good friend of ours, Sherku Sherpa, was raised there. Because he has seen how important education is, in effecting positive change, Sherku has developed a project to build a grade school in Hile. He hopes the project will also eventually provide the possibility for further education (high school) for the young people of this place.

We've seen Sherku's village, and we've met his family and the children of his village. The seed that will be started, by providing better education for these people, will grow to solve many of the most basic difficulties. A lack of certain knowledge can have great consequences, knowledge that we, in our culture, might easily take for granted, perhaps about sanitation, or basic first aid.

So, in order to raise funds, we've had two shows, with slides and photographs, paintings, food, clothing and other artifacts, and talk of this fascinating people. We hope to be able to continue helping with this project in the coming years, with funding for supplies and other needs, and hopefully further education for high school aged children.

Update: Since the maoist uprising in Nepal caused so much difficulty in getting
anything useful done in the rural areas, we put a 'hold' on the school project in 2000.
But since that time, an Austrian aid group, Ecohimal, has gone into
Hile and has provided many infrastructural improvements.
They have helped the people of the village, installing a bridge, septic systems,
windows, and chimneys for their homes (their indoor cooking fires previously vented through the thatch roof and unsealed windows).
They've also built a medical clinic (with training for a nurse),
and they've built a school!

When Sherku heard of Ecohimal's efforts, he contacted his people in the
village, and directed them to provide the Ecohimal people with the
lumber that had been bought, and the
remainder of the funds that we'd raised, for the school.
Those funds were put toward Ecohimal's Hile projects.

And another great organization we should all be aware of, the
Central Asia Insitute, creating schools for boys and girls in
rural Pakistan and Afghanistan,
is written about in

"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson
(a great book, an amazing effort, and a noble organization!)

if you'd like more information about Hile, call:
The Dress Shop
716-652-7126 and ask for
Danielle or Chan
(please mention the Hile' School Project)

or contact us through our email form, using
'Hile School' for your street address, and
we'll get back with you .