About Us

Community Action Nepal is a charity that works with remote communities in the Tsum-Nubri valleys of the Nepalese Himalaya.

We deliver education, health and livelihood programmes to help these communities to improve their quality of life, reduce donor dependency and increase their resilience in the face of natural disasters, volatile weather conditions and global health emergencies.

OUR STORY

CAN’s work in Nepal began in response to a spontaneous request in 1989 to help improve conditions of labour in the Himalayan trekking industry.

A request soon followed to help improve village infrastructure in Ghunsa, near Salleri. As word spread, similar requests were received from other regions; slowly at first but with greater urgency as the civil war took hold throughout Nepal.

During the years of civil unrest between 1996 and 2006, CAN, along with other charities, filled a gap as the Government resources focused on the civil war.

It provided direct support to schools, health posts and other neglected community projects. In the years following the civil war, Government funding was haphazard and unreliable, so CAN continued to provide funding and support to projects in the most sustainable and appropriate manner it could.

After 30 years, CAN has delivered or directly supported over 45 projects in Nepal.

OUR KEY SECTORS

DOUG SCOTT

Community Action Nepal was founded by the mountaineering legend, Doug Scott. He spent many happy years climbing in Nepal, scaling some of the greatest peaks of the Himalaya.

His notoriety was cemented in 1975, when Doug stood atop Mount Everest with Dougal Haston, becoming the first ever Britons to do so, and the first by the notoriously difficult south-west face.

Doug, along with many other climbers of the time, identified a need to improve the economic working practices of expedition porters in Nepal. This eventually led Doug to the realisation that the communities the porters came from also faced major challenges, including a lack of health facilities, educational opportunities, and clean water.

Doug set up the charity Community Action Nepal in 1994 to improve the standard of living in these remote Himalayan communities to give something back to the mountain people who had helped him to achieve his mountaineering goals.

Over the years CAN has supported tens of thousands of people in Nepal through the construction over 40 schools, health posts and porter rescue shelters, and by implementing many other community development projects.