Personal Aid Favoured For Eastern Countries

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30215, 21 August 1963, Page 14

Personal Aid Favoured For Eastern Countries

Throughout the East there was a great opportunity for personal service on a modest scale, helping persons to help themselves, said Sir Edmund Hillarv, chairman of the New Zealand Council for Voluntary Service Abroad when he spoke to the Christchurch Lions' Club yesterday "I believe that a great deal of the future of aid programmes by the wealthier countries is going to be this personalised activity to help people in the field, to work ■with them and live with them," he said. Sir Edmund Hillary described his recent expedition to the Himalayas to build schools for the Sherpa children high in the mountains to bring water to villages which previously had to depend on women trudging up and down the mountains with water on their backs, and to assist medically This, he said, was the type of work New Zealanders could do, and it was appreciated by those who w-ere helpad When it was announced that he was going to Nepal to help to build schools he received a letter from a pensioner asking why he did not stay at home and do something for old-age pensioners. Sir Edmund Hillary said “But most old-age pensioners live like kings compared with millions of people throughout the world.” he said, “and the other side of the story is that every now and then I receive £1 note in an envelope for the Sherpa school fund and the letter is just signed ‘A Pensioner’ ’•

Two years ago the first school had been established in -he Kjumjung region, he said. When he returned recently he found that the children were cleaner, and

this had also been reflected in the attitude of the adults to washing. The whole village had had a facelift Sherpas* Appreciation To show the appreciation of the Sherpas for anything that was done for them. Sir Edmund Hillary mentioned the time the New Zealanders installed plastic piping and piped water down a hill to the village. When the water started trickling through, two of the headmen—“and they were tough cookies"—burst into tears, he said. The Sherpas and the Tibetans were to>-gh and they were no t sorry for themselves, he said When there was talk of Britain joining •he European Common Market he was dismayed that so many New Zealanders felt sorry for themselves before anything ttad happened That was a very defeatist attitude and New Zealanders could learn much from persons who had very little but who went on living in spite of adversity Hand-outs and charity were not good for people. Sir Edmund Hillary said. He was reminded of one of the women porters on the exped i. tion She was almost a dwarf, and her load seemed bigser than she was He weighed her one day, and found she was 541 b—her load was 58lb But she carried her load, and he would have been doing a had he not allowed ♦hat. When the porters were pad off she was given generous "baksheesh." but it was not that which she an oreciated: it was the paywent for a job properly done

Europe now has more than 3000 youth hostels. The Jareest, in Heidelberg, ha* 580