History

Himalayan Learning was founded during a winter festival in 2001 by two people, a Brit and a Nepali, who had recently returned from working in Nepal

Having returned from working in Nepal for charities and schools, Oliver Spencer and Menuka Shrestha put their minds together to work our what they could do to help children living in extreme poverty.

Taking up the challenge, the organisation Himalayan Learning was founded to enable children to attend school to learn their way out of poverty. In the first year 114 children were given support to return to 5 schools in Nepal.

In 2004 with growing experience of running projects, the organisation started to focus on the education of girls and the inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Himalayan Learning also registered with the UK Inland Revenue and Charity Commission and started to gain support from other countries.

After building wells and supporting young girls' access to healthcare, Himalayan Learning started to diversify its projects in 2005 to start to help with the causes of why some children, particulalrly girls, were not attending school.

› Filming wild animals

In 2005 we also launched our first website and produced a short documentary film highlighted by the BBC to illustrate the work that Himalayan Learning was doing in Nepal. During 2006 the proportion of supporters coming from outside the UK had crossed 50% and Himalayan Learning had truly gone global.