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This challenge trip is multi faceted. It combines an insight into Ladakh’s traditional culture and some responsible trekking; together with some project work where you are helping the local community at genuine and sustainable projects. Tourism in Ladakh is still in its infancy and this challenge gives you a chance to help bring a new livelihood to the region.
The Project Challenge
The project work will be helping local schools with activities like gardening, white washing, environment cleaning with students etc. It is also possible to experience traditional farming and have hands on experience including milking, feeding animals, gardening, cooking and harvesting etc.
The Challenge Journey
- Our local staff are well trained in making links across cultures, encouraging communication between visitors and Ladakhis, to ensure that experiences to both sides are rich and rewarding.
- Accommodation is in small independent, locally owned guesthouses throughout this trip which brings income to local people and creates employment.
- Environmental consciousness of the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas is the mantra of our field staff. We believe in keeping the environment clean and bring all tins, bottles, refuse back to Leh for disposal or recycling. Whilst on the trek we camp responsibly, choosing our sites carefully and leave behind only footprints so that the environment is not disturbed.
- Your local guide is Ladakh born and bred and will travel with you through out the trip; you will be taken to local restaurants, shops and markets so the money that you spend directly benefits the people that live in this remote region. All support staff are also Ladakh people which provides valuable employment for them.
The local operator that runs this trip is Ladakh owned and managed their goal is to ensure that change in Ladakh takes a positive direction. They give some of the profits to assist the people of Ladakh and fund community-based initiatives focusing on environmental, health, and educational activities, including guide training. A key project funded through this is the Ladakh Society for Traditional Medicine (L.S.T.M.), a local organization dedicated to the revitalization of traditional medicine (Sowa Rigpa) in remote villages in Ladakh. This system of medicine, also known as Tibetan medicine or Amchi Medicine, has been the health care system of Tibet and the Himalayan kingdoms for more than 2,500 years. A large portion of the profit goes to L.S.T.M. to strengthen the practice of this ancient and time-tested science of natural healing, as well as the conservation and protection of Ladakh’s potent high-altitude medicinal plants. Our Foundation.
We have our own foundation, a registered charity, which our travellers and volunteers can join us in supporting. The aims of the foundation are; the advancement of education, the relief of poverty and sickness and the preservation and protection of good health through the provision of financial assistance, volunteers and such other forms of support as the council members may from time to time determine.
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