Himalayan Environment and Life Protection (H.E.L.P.)

H.E.L.P. was created by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche in March 2023. 

To continue Tergar Charity Nepal’s work to mitigate climate change in the Himalayas, Rinpoche has created  Himalayan Environment and Life Protection (H.E.L.P.).  This new non-profit is led by Project Coordinator Margot Clavier, to empower communities to become resilient in the face of climate change and protect the environment in the Himalayas. Rinpoche’s vision is to support human flourishing through work that reduces all forms of suffering and leads to increased innate well-being. 

H.E.L.P. will continue Tergar Charity’s women’s empowerment projects teaching basic literacy in English, Nepali, Math, and vocational training such as the sewing of renewable cloth pads and cooking. In Samagaun, Rinpoche’s birthplace,  situated at 3550m altitude at the bottom of mount Manaslu (8163m), women will continue to learn and make yak cheese.

H.E.L.P.  will continue and expand Tergar Charity’s work of creating sustainable biodiversity-based value chains to generate income for communities. One such example is the Rosa Macrophylla rose-hip value chain, which enables Samagaun villagers to gain income from picking and drying rose hips, which are sent to Canada and then made into the Himalayan Mountain Tea by a luxury tea company partner, TEALEAVES. 100% of the tea’s profits go to the community.

H.E.L.P. will build on Tergar Charity’s successful bio-climatic greenhouses project. This project built  62 passive solar greenhouses in Samagaun and Samdo (3900m) and enabled villagers to grow vegetables that had never been available to the village before, such as: tomatoes, zucchini, beans, cucumbers, chilis, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and cauliflower.

H.E.L.P will implement a project to make communities like Samagaun and Samdo more resilient in the face of climate change. This will include: supporting communities to massively reforest using traditional and drone technology, supporting the use of climate smart agriculture, promoting agroforestry, creating sustainable value chains such as yak wool handicrafts and medicinal herbs, and supporting the use of renewable energy to decrease deforestation.