KATHMANDU: Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company has provided relief to 30 guides and porters who have been struggling hard to meet their ends due to COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Sagar Pandey, company’s founder and chief executive officer, the fund was distributed amidst a function orgainsed in the office premises by maintaining social distancing yesterday.

As the trekking and mountain guides as well as porters are supporting their families and they are now facing a bleak future while the pandemic rages, the company has moved to support the needy people by running a GoFundMe campaign, Pandey added.

“As a company, we have been doing everything we can to support our hardworking guides and porters in this difficult time but the prolonged crisis and a complete halt in tourism have made it very difficult for us,” Pandey said, adding that the fund raising campaign was initiated in collaboration between Himalayan Glacier Adventure and

Travel Company, USA and Lina Patel, the strategic business partner of the company in the USA.

According to Sanket Pandey, Director of Sales & Marketing at Himalayan Glacier Adventures LLC, at least 80 donors were involved to raise $9,596 which was distributed among 30 guides and porters who are working in the company.

The benefited guides include Hom Nath Bhatta, Suresh Pandey, Ashis Gurung, Rishi Ram Bhantana, Dev Raj Giri, Ongchhu Sherpa, Prem Tenji Sherpa, Lila Bahadur Karki, Shanker Bhatta and Sudarshan Devkota among others, he informed.

“It’s our responsibility to initiate relief for guides and porters in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic taking away employment opportunities in different sectors of the economy,” Pandey said.