The Himalayan Trust is an international non-profit humanitarian organisation first established in the 1960s by Sir Edmund Hillary, who led the trust until his death in 2008. The Himalayan Trust aims to improve the health, education and general wellbeing of people living in the Solukhumbu District.
Khumjung School in 1961
Khumjung School in 2017
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal.
Hillary in c. 1953
Hillary's mother Gertrude Clark, 1909
Hillary in Royal New Zealand Air Force uniform at Delta Camp, near Blenheim, New Zealand, during World War II
Portrait Sir Edmund Hillary, Australia, July 1953