(2014 ☆ ARCHIVED) Expand and Extend: Women and Canoeing – Nepal

EXPAND & EXTEND PROGRAM (Nepal) - Nominee for the 'Paddlesport Professional' Award

The ‘Expand and Extend’ program aims to develop women’s canoeing across the five continents, contributing to a greater base of female paddlers and working towards gender equity in canoeing. In December 2013 a training camp was held in Nepal as part of this program.

The camp brought together a group of female paddlers on the Sun-Khosi and Bote-Khosi rivers. Along with their coaches, these women from Nepal, Hong-Kong, and New Zealand built their own gates, constructed a slalom-training course and learned the skills and rules of canoe slalom.

In some parts of the world, many women have responsibilities and barriers preventing them from participating in sports. The purpose of the camp in Nepal was to help women feel empowered in taking part in paddlesports, as well as to impart values such as aiming and achieving goals, sharing knowledge with others and awareness of ecology and sustainability.

The program also provided videographers to document and promote the camp, and others like it.

Some of the participants at the camp, Anu, Ritu and Sita, run Himalayan Adventure Girls, a company specializing in river adventures. They also founded Himalayan Adventure Nepalese Girls, which encourages Nepali women to become rafting and kayaking guides and instructors. (www.himalayangirls.com)

The program in Nepal was supported by the Himalayan Adventure Nepalese Girls, the ICF, the Asian Canoe Confederation, an NGO and the Nepal Rafting and Canoeing Association.

In 2013 a similar camp was held in Lomé (Togo), Turkey and more camps are planned for December 2014 in Asia, Africa and Europe.

• Decided is that similar intiatiatives will take place in Iran and Thailand in 2015.

This is a 2014 archived nominee. For the 2015 nominees click on the button below.