Nimdoma Sherpa

Background

Nimdoma Sherpa was born into a poor Sherpa family in a remote Himalayan village in Nepal.

Education

When she graduated from high school, she became the first in her family to do southern

Career

In 2008 she became the youngest woman to climb Mount Everest and in 2009 she joined the Seven Summits Women Team, a team of Nepalese women whose goal is to climb the Seven Summits. At five years old, she began attending school through a school meals program run by the United Nations World Food Programme (World Food Program). After finishing high school, Nimdoma joined the First Inclusive Women"s Sagarmatha Expedition, an all-female mountaineering team supported by the World Food Program. In May 2008, all ten team members successfully summited Mount Everest, making 16-year-old Nimdoma the youngest woman to have reached the summit until her record was broken in 2012.

Her success on Everest was recounted in a children"s book titled Snow Leopard, the Yeti and the Girl Who Climbed Mount Everest, published by the World Food Program to promote the use of school meals to reduce child hunger.

In 2009, Nimdoma and six of her Nepalese Sagarmatha Expedition teammates formed the Seven Summits Women Team, an all-female team whose goal is to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountains of each continent. In addition to Nimdoma, the team members comprised Shailee Basnet, Pujan Acharya, Maya Gurung, Asha Kumari Singh, Pema Diki and Chunu Shrestha.

Having already climbed Mount Everest, the team began their mission in 2010 with successful ascents of Mount Kosciuszko (Australia) and Mount Elbrus (Russia). In March 2013, they joined three Tanzanian women to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) in celebration of International Women"s Day.

In February 2014, Nimdoma and three other teammates reached the summit of Aconcagua (Argentina), their fifth mountain of the Seven Summits.

The team plans to climb Mount McKinley (United States) and Vinson Massif (Antarctica) to complete the challenge by the end of 2015. Nimdoma was one of the founders of Global Inclusive Adventures, a non-governmental organization started by the Seven Summits Women Team, which visits Nepalese schools to talk about their expeditions with the aim of inspiring young children. She is also the face of an advertising campaign for the World Food Program"s School Feeding Program.

She has expressed her gratitude to the World Food Program for "open the door of educational opportunities and help me to pursue my dream of climbing Everest".

Achievements

• Stephen Anderson, the director of World Food Program Japan, has said that "Nimdoma is a shining example of what the World Food Program-supported school feeding programs can achieve by helping give needy children an education and a fighting chance of breaking the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty.".