Musa Masala and the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) have gone into an agreement for fundraising and education! We got together at the Wilderness Medical (WMS) summer conference in Snowbird, Utah to celebrate our new partnership.
We actually got started at the HRA’s medical tent at Mount Everest, Everest ER, in 2016, during a WMS trek to Everest Base Camp in support of the clinic. Our co-founder, Dr. Tatiana Havryliuk, was one of the three doctors working for the spring climbing season. As we were sort of helping put up the tent, we talked about ways to help raise money to build the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. That project became our book, Musa Masala: Mountain Girl of the Himalaya, and led us to where we are today.
So we are teaming up with the HRA to help coordinate fundraising and education.
As non-profits, both the Himalayan Rescue Association and Musa Masala depend on donations from people who care about what we do. For the HRA, we will provide a place in the U.S. where you can help by going to himalayanrescueasociation.org and clicking the “donate” tab. From their donation page, click “U.S. donation,” and it will take you to the Musa Masala PayPal page.
Or you can click straight from the donate button at musamasala.org and do the same. If you go that route, include a note that your donation is for the HRA and we will be sure you get a receipt with your donation for tax purposes. It’s easy and it helps!!
A bit about the HRA
Founded in 1973, the Himalayan Rescue Association just celebrated their 50th anniversary last year.
The HRA has three seasonal clinics in the Himalaya: two every spring and fall trekking season. One takes place in Manang along the Annapurna circuit, and the other, in Pheriche, happens along the Everest Base Camp trek.
Two additional clinics pop up once a year at the famous Everest ER, founded by Dr. Luanne Freer and facilitated by the late Wongchhu Sherpa. Dr. Freer turned over the clinic completely to the HRA. There is also a clinic for the pilgrimage to Gusakunda lake each year, a challenging time treating pilgrims traveling to high altitude. You can look forward to reading articles on each of these clinics here at Musa Masala!
Educational collaborations
We are excited about the educational initiatives we will undertake together. The HRA clinics are famous for their daily and free altitude lectures given to all trekkers and climbers as they pass through. Musa Masala has been proud to supply our altitude tips cards to the clinics, featuring the HRA’s four rules of altitude safety, for several years now. We are working on a new idea together that will help us all deal safely with mountain travel.
So here’s to our working together to promote safe and healthy mountain travel. We had such a good time with the HRA team at the Wilderness Medical Society Conference. We look forward to many good times and lots of good ideas, good care, and good outcomes.
