There are various ways how make your time out from your busy, stressfull and strenuous work. By the same time, there are a number of ways how people work for charity to raise money and contribute to poor and needy people on earth. What if all the these things come together? A charity organization, a bunch of good hearted people who work and want time out once in a while; and the poor and needy people from the different parts of the world! There are such events and collaborations happening time and again to support the charity organizations and thereby needy people.
 
The Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) is a charity organization established about half a century ago in United Kingdom and working globally has been organizing such events. They recently took about two dozens of their fundraisers to the trekking in Mount Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar of Nepal Himalayas as their incentive and holiday time out! The offer is obviously amazing and the fund raisers contribution must be appreciated.
 
The VSO has long been working in different parts of the world with variety of issues like Education, HIV & AIDS, Disability, Health and social wellbeing, Secure Livelihood and Participation and Governace! It was meaningful to take the fundaraisers in Nepal Hiamalayas where the organizations is working for Education and some other issues like HIV and AIDS. The fundraisers could see themselves where their effort has been implemented and how effective it was. They, in fact, went to observe the schools supported by the VSO and attended the programs organized by the schools for them.
 
The fund raisers in this trek, almost all were employees from Accenture; a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. The goodhearted employees had been working in the company, having good holidays and doing some charity work out of that. That's really impressive and laudable. The VSO is smart enough with the concept and capitalizing the possibility.
 
 As both of the destinations are above and beyond the 5000m altitude, the alitude illness is one of the dangerous medical problems we can face. Then there are some other travel and wilderness problems like travellers' diarrhoea (which was rocking Khumbu during that time), Khumbu cough ( the dry hacking cough), upper respiratory tract infections, trauma and sprain etc. The group did great, everyone of its member making to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pathar and coming safely back home despite few problems.
 
The trek in Nepal was organized by Summit Nepal Trekking. The tour leader was Mr James Grey while the VSO representative was Ms Michell (Shelley) Piggot and the Nepali tour leader (aka Sirdar) was Mr Karma Gyalzi Sherpa.

The competing interest: I was the trip Physician for the trek to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar for the group.