Kathmandu, November 8:

Um Hong-Gil, the first Asian and world’s eighth mountaineer to have scaled all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks, yesterday announced scholarships to children of late Nepali mountaineers.

Hong-Gil will continue his monthly support to the orphaned children as well as to the widow and mother of late Chuldim Dorjee Sherpa.

He gave away the first instalment of monthly cash support of Rs 10,000 to five children of late Kami Dorji Sherpa, Rs 7000 to two children of late Ngati Sherpa and Rs 7000 to two

children of late Ang Dawa Tamang.

Similarly, he handed over Rs 7000 to Lhakpa Diki, widow of late Chuldim Dorjee Sherpa here yesterday.

He will also give a monthly allowance of Rs 7000 to late Lakpa’s mother Chuldin Dorjee Sherpa and Rs 3,000 to Kazi Tamang who sustained injuries following an avalanche on Kanchanjunga in 1999.

“My gesture is in memory of my climbing friends who lost their lives on the mountains while climbing with me,” he said.

Hong-Gil has also announced similar welfare support and scholarship funds to the family and children of Korean climbers who lost their lives while climbing with him.

The Korean company Treksta has sponsored these projects.“The pull of the mountains has been such a great one and for this I have not ceased loving the Himalayas and climbing here. Himalayas and Nepal are my second home,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hong-Gil, along with a group of Koreans and seven Nepali children of low-income group went on a hike in the Everest region today. The trip is jointly organised by the Plan International Korea and Nepal and the Korean Broadcasting System television company.