Foundations

It was in October 1960 that Ed Hillary conceived the idea of schools and a hospital to help the Sherpas. He and his party were crossing the 5,800-metre Tashi Laptsa pass which provides a passage over the mountain rampart to the west of the Sherpa region called Khumbu. With its stone-swept gullies, icefall and crevassed névés, the Tashi Laptsa is not easy even with crampons, ice-axes and ropes. Before crossing the pass, they had pitched a makeshift camp high on the moraine-covered ice of the Tolam Bau glacier. There, as night fell and the porters crowded for warmth under tarpaulins, Ed and his climbers, along with Sirdar Urkien and Nepali-speaking journalist Desmond Doig, huddled around a fire of juniper and azalea scrub whose pungent smoke filled the air. With Desmond translating, talk turned to the Sherpas and their future, and the question was asked, 'If there were one thing, Urkien, we could do for your village, what would it be?' Ed had thought the answer might be a small hospital, but the answer Urkien gave was, 'We would like a school for our children.'

The requests and petitions kept coming in and Ed Hillary worked with the local people of Solu Khumbu, the Mt Everest region in Nepal, to build and operate 42 schools and hospitals, forestry programmes, bridges, water systems, airstrips and tracks. Of course there were many friends and partners from around the world who helped with this work.

Below is a list of the Foundations that Ed Hillary founded or cooperated with during his lifetime and the Hillary family continue to work with around the World.