3 Sisters and Empowering Women of Nepal: Training Nepal's Female Mountain Guides

In 1994, sisters Lucky, Dicky and Nicky Chhetri began teaching Nepali women to lead treks in the Annapurna region, then formalized the effort in 1999 as the nonprofit Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN), paired with their guiding agency 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking. EWN's free training program teaches disadvantaged women map reading, first aid, English, leadership and mountaineering skills, followed by a paid apprenticeship on real treks so graduates earn wages on par with experienced male porters. Getting women outdoors and into paid guiding work has become a route to both income and confidence in a country where trekking guiding was historically an all-male profession. Between 1999 and 2019, EWN trained more than 2,000 women from 52 of Nepal's districts, and more than 100 women guides now work with 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking each trekking season.