Disabled Everester feted

Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 4:

Nepal Federation of the Disabled - Nepal (NFDN) today felicitated Newang Sherpa, the first Nepali who scaled Mount Everest with an artificial leg on May 13, 2004. Newang, who lost his leg in a motorbike accident was determined to scale the Everest as he was enchanted by the Himalayas since childhood. "Everest was a dream I wanted to conquer since my childhood and after I lost my leg I became more determined to make my dream come true," he said, adding that he wanted to prove that people like him were not inferior in any way. "To encourage people like Newang, the Social Welfare Council is ready to extend all possible help," said Dr Prabha Basnet, member secretary of the council. The aim of the council is to provide backward people with opportunities so that they too can be involved into the mainstream of national development, he added. Chairman of NFDN, Birendra Raj Pokhrel, demanded that the state should provide adequate infrastructure for the all round development of the disabled.