Syanu Tamang was a teenager from Sindhupalchok. Her parents Hikmat Tamang and Suki Tamang had three children, and Syanu was their eldest child and the only daughter. Hikmat was a farmer, and during tourist seasons, he worked as a porter for trekking companies. Whenever he returned from a trek, he would bring home sacks of rice, pulses, and other necessary items for his family.

Syanu loved her father dearly. She would always wait for her father’s return so that she could listen to his stories. After dinner, Hikmat would sit beside the fire and share with his children his experience working as a porter. Syanu and two of her younger brothers would listen to those stories with great interest, and she would always be the last one to go to sleep.

Syanu was a hardworking student. Her school was located 12 kms away from her house. To reach her school, she had to cross a river with the help of an old rickety ropeway. When she was studying in grade 8, Syanu and two other students were using the ropeway to cross the river. When the ropeway’s carriage reached the middle of the raging river, it broke and all three students fell right in the middle of the river. Only Syanu survived the fall. The incident traumatised Syanu and she refused to go to school after that.

A few days after the incident, Hikmat encouraged Syanu to continue school but she was adamant and flatly refused. However, she asked her father to purchase some school books for her and he did so gladly. During the day, Syanu would help her mother in the kitchen and she would also go to the field to work in the field. During her free time, she would read. She was a voracious reader, and even though she had only studied till grade 8, she knew a lot more than children of her age.

A few years after the ropeway accident, life was going normal for the Tamang family. One day early in the morning Hikmat went to the nearby forest to collect fodder for his livestock. He climbed a tree and began cutting its leafy branches. Not long after he had climbed the tree, he lost his balance and fell down on the ground. The fall fractured his right ankle and Hikmat was taken to a nearby hospital. After two months, the fracture healed but he could no longer carry heavy loads, which meant he could no longer work as a porter.

It was a major blow for the family because it was Hikmat’s income as a porter that provided for the family.

When the trekking season neared, Hikmat started getting anxious and every evening he cried. Suki did her best to console him. She strongly believed in God and asked her husband to have faith in the almighty. She thought God would show their family a way to survive.

One evening as the family gathered for dinner, Syanu told her father, “Baba, you should not worry as long as your daughter is here. Let me work as a porter. As far as physical strength is concerned I’m not inferior to any boys of my age. Moreover, nowadays there are several female porters in the country. Please give me the name of one of the female porters you know. I will meet her and learn from her and become a successful porter.”

Hikmat did not want his daughter to become a porter, but he had no choice but to agree with her. Hikmat gave Syanu the phone number of Chhimi Dura, who lived in the nearby village. Chhimi was a well-known porter and was very popular among female foreign trekkers.

Hikmat knew Chhimi very well and he was confident that she would take good care of Syanu.

On the day Syanu left for Chhimi’s village, the entire family bid her farewell. Syanu walked for two hours and reached Chhimi’s home and stayed there for a week. Chhimi treated Syanu like her younger sister and gave her the basic training. Two weeks after leaving home, Syanu started working as a porter with Chhimi for a group of Dutch female trekkers who were heading to Upper Dolpo for a month-long trek.

For the next few months, Syanu worked as a porter on several trekking expeditions. Sincere, hardworking, obedient, and a fast learner, Syanu easily won the hearts of her clients.

After four years working as a porter, Syanu’s spoken English had improved a lot and she could even understand and speak a few other languages. From September to November in autumn and March to May in spring, Syanu worked as a porter. The rest of the year, she travelled to Kathmandu and took part in self-improvement training classes.

One of Syanu’s regular clients was a group of Swedish trekkers. They had formed a project named Rural Woman Empowerment Project (RWEP), and impressed with Syanu’s hard work, dedication and honesty, they approached her to join RWEP as a full-time staff member. Syanu immediately accepted their offer.

Syanu, with the help of her project, encouraged many young girls to become porters and guides. She opened a contact centre in Pokhara and Kathmandu. The selected girls were provided free three months training and accomodation. To raise more funds for the project, Syanu also organised various programmes in Kathmandu and Pokhara and asked for generous donations.

Soon, Syanu was promoted to become the regional director of the project. By then Syanu was fluent in English, Spanish, Japanese and French.

One day Syanu travelled to her village to address a large crowd of her village people. The happiness of the people of Syanu’s village knew no bounds when she promised to construct a suspension bridge so that no children of her village would have to risk their lives while going to school. A woman stood up from the crowd and walked through the crowd and came towards Syanu. The woman had recently lost her two daughters when the ropeway trolley fell into the river. “God bless you, my dear. You are going to do what many governments could not do for the children of this village,” said the woman. The crowd applauded Syanu’s great work. When all those who had gathered left, Syanu saw two elderly persons in the crowd still clapping and they were none other than her parents.