Finished building's framework, but there is still a lot to do
The original plot of land before the excavation
The famous Lukla airport, on a steep slope
The Lukla Lodge Association was created three years ago and its purpose was to build a lodge in the "door to the Himalaya", in the town of Lukla, where the famous mountain airport arrive the vast majority of trekkers and tourists that want to see Everest or Sagarmatha ("head of the skies" in nepalese), and its 8.848 m of altitude.
Dawa Pasang Sherpa, who will run the future lodge, is a 38 year old woman with two teen age boys, separated from her ex-husband because of serious problems in their coexistence and with very little economic means. Her only personal property is the plot of land where we are building.
Two years ago the Association signed an "assignment of property" document , drawn up in Nepalese and Spanish, in which she promises to hand over her land to the Association to build the lodge. Likewise, she promises to carry out inside the building all the projects of local development that the Association has suggested. Here is the transcription of an extract of the document mentioned above:
FOURTH.- Miss Dawa Pasang Sherpa will colaborate in the social promotion of all activities, courses, talks, conferences, etc...related with literacy campaigns, healthiness, bioclimate construction, alternative energies, women's autonomy, English, training for porters and sirdars, and any other activities that the Association might program.
Likewise, she undertakes the commitment of not disposing the lodge for any other than the Association as you can see in this other article:
FIFTH.- Miss Dawa Pasang Sherpa, likewise her ancestors, descendents and heirs will not be able to alienate, rent, donate, transfer, hand over the use of her plot of land, which is the subject of these agreements, without the expressed consent of the Lukla Lodge Association, who will have a right of first refusal over this land, whichever the reason may be and the title of the transnission to third parties.
We encourage all collaborators to become members, understanding as collaborator any person that has made a donation, for which an ID card and address are necessary.
The board of members is made up by four people and they get together periodically: Raquel Bueno, Ana Armendáriz, Lucía Lorda and Koldo Aldaz. Raquel and Koldo control the Association and the expenses that are made.
There are NO management expenses at all made by the Association and every euro that comes into the account goes directly to Nepal for the lodge construction. Our support administrator in Nepal is Mikel Leizeaga, a basque that formed his family in Kathmandu and to who we owe a great deal of all the effort that has been put into this project.
As soon as the construction is completetly finished and we go to inaugurate it, which we calculate will be around autumn 2011, the local development activities that we have mentioned above, will start.
As a consequence of the usual budget deviation in every building work, we have at present a 14.000€ deficit, which we have temporarily solved through a loan that we have to return as soon as possible. We prefer doing it like this than leaving all the building work unfinished and the perspective of a hard winter ahead and the later difficulty of finding other building contractors.
SO WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE DONATIONS EITHER DIRECTLY MAKING A PAYMENT INTO OUR ASSOCIATION ACCOUNT IN THE U.S.A. (TRI-COUNTY BANK, ACC # 474390, Routing Number: 072404977) OR DIRECT DONATIONS WITH THE "DONATE" BUTTON IN THIS SAME BLOG, through Pay Pal by completing the following form with basic data and without registering in Pay Pal if you don't wish to.
