GRANT PROGRAMS
The Juniper Fund provides cost-of living grants, vocational training, and business grants to help empower families to create sustainable businesses to replace the lost income of their loved one and continue to serve as essential supports within the fabric of their community.
Cost of Living Grant
Financially support a family through the initial grief period after the loss of a family member in the mountains.
Business Grant
Provide a means for financial independence, and the sense and knowledge that this is possible.
Vocational Training
Develop skills and opportunities in an income-producing area of interest.
COVID-19 Support
During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Juniper Fund has executed a focused and immediate response within our community to establish grants for economic relief. We have been able to maintain regular contact with our family members and distribute need-based grants to those hardest hit by the pandemic. Grants have been distributed for rent relief and support with living expenses. Without these grants, many of our families would be forced to sell their businesses, lose their home, and struggle to put food on the table.
In order to support the broader climbing community, The Juniper Fund is partnering with Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) to provide 14-day basic climbing and first aid trainings to local Nepali guides during the pandemic when work in the mountains is not possible. This training, which is provided to participants free of charge, is focused on increasing the skills, experience, and certifications of the high-altitude workforces.
ADVOCACY
While there is an immediate and urgent need to support the families directly, it is imperative that we also address the systemic issues that put the families of high altitude workers at risk in the first place. The Juniper Fund is committed to advocating on behalf of our community to decision makers at the government level and key stakeholders within the trekking and travel industries.
Those efforts are focused on three strategic goals:
To increase the education and awareness of the participants of this growing industry as to the outcomes in the event of tragedy so that there are well-informed and responsible choices on the part of the consumer.
To improve the available insurance, the standards of coverage, and mandatory minimums set by the government in regards to insurance of local workers.
To standardize the education, experience, and certification requirements for the local mountain workers set by the governments across the mountaineering industry in Nepal
OUR IMPACT
To date, we have supported the families of 48 lost workers, directly affecting the lives of over 200 people.
The vast majority of these families’ loved ones were lost working on Everest, but we have supported families throughout the Himalayan region.
SINCE 2013
Community Stories
The work of the Juniper Fund is all about community. We often enter the lives of our families at a time of grief, but have the honor and privilege to stand side by side with them as they develop their own resilience, discover strengths they never knew possible, and build successful and sustainable businesses that will support their families and communities well into the future.
