“Having succeeded in becoming the first Spanish woman to ascend above 8,000 meters (1989-Cho Oyu, 26906 feet) I felt encouraged to organize further expeditions to these heights and on each of these I was grateful for the help of the Sherpas.

Magda Nos and Mònica Verge, Cho Oyu 1989

Magda Nos and Mònica Verge, Cho Oyu 1989

After climbing seven of these peaks I decided it was time for me to do something for those who had helped me so much. So in the spring of 1998 in returned to Nepal for the first time without a permit to climb but with a much more complex objective; to find a way to help the people of Nepal.

For two months I visited many villages, often far from the areas frequented by climbers, and came to understand in greater depth the harsh realities faced by the Nepalese each day, always with the same smile and hopes for a better future. One morning while walking near the Annapurnas Massif I came across a group of children. Rather than carrying school books they were weighed down with feed for the livestock at home. They didn’t go to school because their village had none and I suddenly understood that the best gift that I could give these children would be a chance at an education. The budget for an 8,000 meter climb would buy all the materials needed to build a school and I decided to make it a reality in 1999. That year I spent 3 months in Yarmasing, near Tibet, building a five room school for more than a hundred children, Namlo International’s first school.

‘The budget for an 8,000 meter climb would buy all the materials needed to build a school and I decided to make it a reality in 1999’

During the last fifteen years we have helped to build a total of eights schools in Nepal and Nicaragua, where more than 2000 children are receiving a good education. We have also built 2 trade schools where adults are educated and taught trades so that their communities will have businesses and can become self sufficient. Also, more than 2300 have participated in our sister school program. Since some of our sister schools are located in Cataluña we decided in 2011 to create Namlo Europa to better serve teachers and schools there and facilitate the exchange of experiences and sharing of information”.

Magda Nos  Founder of Namlo International and Namlo Europa