Pasang’s dream to empower remote Nepal with entrepreneurship

Hi, I'm Pasang Lhamo Lama from the Himalayan village of Lho in Nubri, Nepal. I'm graduating from ICS this year and raising funds to pursue a degree in International Business in the Netherlands to support my community back home.

In our village, like most remote Himalayan areas, there’s no electricity, healthcare, or formal education. My parents are subsistence farmers, growing just enough to feed our family of six. Though illiterate, they understood the value of education. So when a monk told them about the Shree Mangal Dvip school (SMD) in Kathmandu, they did everything they could to send me there.

This is the only photo I have of myself from when I was growing up in the village. I moved to SMD at the age of 5.

SMD (https://himalayanchildren.org/ ) offers free education, housing, and care to about 600 children from isolated Himalayan villages. It truly transforms lives and is supported entirely by donors, including international schools like ICS.

I’m deeply grateful to SMD, not just for education, but also for preserving the Tibetan language and culture. As the SMD founder, the Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, has encouraged us, I want to help preserve this culture because it’s my identity and, like all cultures, the world would be poorer without it.

Here's a photo of me at SMD, playing sports. I loved it! Sports and health have always been important to me.

At the end of Grade 10, I was lucky enough to earn a full scholarship to complete my high school studies at ICS, SMD's longest-standing partner school. Thanks to the support of SMD, ICS staff, my host families, and the ICS community, I completed the IB diploma program. An unimaginable opportunity for someone from my background.

But this experience wasn’t just about education. Coming to Switzerland opened my eyes to new perspectives.

A photo of me at Jucker farm, a new experience for me in the canton of Zurich.

One day, I stopped to chat with some young people fundraising for Swissaid outside a local supermarket. When I told them I was from Nepal, one of them lit up! He enthusiastically talked about traditional Nepali herbal medicines that are available in Switzerland. A local Swiss company makes them using Tibetan formulas and pharmaceutical standards. I was shocked! I never imagined that something we make in our village, our own medicines due to lack of healthcare, would be embraced in the West!

That moment changed everything. I learned that 50-60% of modern Western medicines are derived from nature (and more are yet to be discovered), and the Himalayas are one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots with unique plants and animals. Our communities have deep knowledge of local plants and their medicinal uses. My culture matters more than I realised!

However, the Himalayas are also a climate change hotspot. Our glaciers are melting rapidly, affecting weather, crops, water supplies, and the local people. In addition, deforestation and people abandoning rural areas to work in cities, make matters worse for nature conservation.

But our mountain communities are key to the solution. We’ve lived in harmony with nature for generations. We know our local ecosystems better than anyone, and how to take care of them. But, to preserve this knowledge, we need to make our way of life viable. We need our communities to prosper, not just survive.

One of the publications that helped me realise our knowledge and nature is relevant to the world. Sowa Rigpa is Tibetan medicine.

With eco-entrepreneurship we can turn our traditions and knowledge into economic opportunities. That way we can thrive while protecting our nature and preserving our culture. It’s a win-win all around! What’s needed are intermediaries who can responsibly connect our world with the outside e.g. to trade knowledge and supply of valuable plant material! I hope to become such a connector.

That’s why I’m excited to have received an offer from Hanze University in the Netherlands to study International Business. However, this offer doesn’t include a scholarship.

Through this campaign, I hope to raise enough funds to cover my first year’s tuition. Like other SMD students before me, I’ll seek paid work and sponsorships to fund the rest of my studies.

With your support, I hope to start university this September and gain the skills I need to help bring sustainable development to Nepal’s mountains through eco-entrepreneurship.

Thank you very much for your generosity. Together, we can help remote Nepal thrive by responsibly tapping into its treasures!

Please find the detailed cost breakdown in CHF per year below:

Total per year: CHF 25,279

The above expenses are based on data from Dutch universities and SMD students studying in the Netherlands.