Women Guides for Women Trekkers: Unique development program in Nepal empowers women

Appalachia, June 2003

By Gary Fleener

Over the past decade, trekking in Nepal has injected much-needed cash into mountain economies, especially along the major trekking routes. Various reports suggest that during the late 1990s tourism accounted for approximately 5 to 10 percent of the country’s annual GDP. Of course, this revenue is not distributed equally but tends to concentrate in the hands of hotel and lodge owners, trekking agencies, and guides. Some mountain women, specifically lodge owners, have also benefited. But most women have not, since the tourism industry is principally controlled by men. Three sisters in the foothills town of Pokhara are attempting to change this imbalance. Through their nonprofit organization, Empowering the Women of Nepal (EWN), they have developed a training program to prepare rural Nepali women as trekking guides. They have coupled their development objectives with a savvy business strategy: providing women guides for woman trekkers.