The History of WWEP
WorldWide Education Partnerships for Nepal was born due to a chance turn of events that placed the now Executive Director, Steve Mannshardt, in Nepal during the Fall of 2008. Agreeing to participate in a Himalayan trek with a friend who traveled to Nepal often, Steve found himself thrust into one of the most desperate, challenging and yet fascinating nations on Earth. During the 24-day adventure through the stunning scenery of the Himalayas, Steve saw numerous personal and economic challenges that severely limited the future hopes and successes of so many of the residents whom he met along the way. Further informed of the difficulties of rural Nepali life by his guides, as well as residents he met on the trek, Steve found himself determined to discover some way to help alleviate the dire poverty and poor working conditions of the porters and trekking staff in Nepal. Experiencing the stereotypical epiphany on a scenic mountaintop, Steve knew that somehow Nepal was going to figure prominently into his future. The final three days of the trip was spent in the capital of Kathmandu where he met many young residents of a local orphanage. This fortuitous meeting cemented the depth of the issues in his mind. Seeing the stark differences between the outlook of an impoverished rural resident that only had a life of hard labor to look forward to and the remarkable advantages bestowed upon the lucky few residents who had found support and sponsorship via charity organizations, Steve found it to be his new purpose to further expand the resources available to disadvantaged children and adults in Nepal. Within months, WWEP was officially opened in the USA as a legally registered charity organization.
After launching an extensive outreach campaign to locate suitable recipients, WWEP partnered with twelve Nepali organizations who shared the same goals and values as we had. WWEP has worked with schools, orphanages, monasteries and social service groups, as well as trekking companies and tourism advocacy groups to promote the development and implementation of numerous education resource programs in both urban and rural Nepal.
As of today, WWEP has helped hundreds of children and adults improve their lives and futures by exploring innovative programs which allow them to achieve far more than they could have on their own. These direct improvements have also propagated out to the various families, friends, co-workers and business associates of these recipients to create a web of social and economic improvement that extends further than we ever would have dreamed.
Photo: Basudev Adhikari
Photo: Bidur Bhattarai
Photo: Arjun Limbu
Photo: Sonam Gyurme
Photo: Chitra Magar
Photo: Karma Sherpa