SAMA grooms students as trekking guides trained for mountain rescue

GANGTOK, 15 Dec: Thirty Tourism students from different schools of East Sikkim, namely Sang Secondary School, Lingdok Senior Secondary School and Rhenock Senior Secondary School - completed a seven-day Trekking Guide-cum-Mountain Rescue Training  at Pangthang Junior High school on 13 December .
A total of 15 resource persons were engaged for the training, drawn mostly from Sikkim Amateur Mountaineering Association, and from Tourism & Civil Aviation Department, Travel Agents Association of Sikkim TAAS and Sikkim Armed Police.
On completion of the training, the participants were awarded with certificates and trophies by the Tourism & Civil Aviation Secretary, T Zangpo, who was present as chief guest for the valedictory function. The function was also attended by Pangthang GPU president and School committee members.
Sagar Rai, the SAMA treasurer, made a brief presentation on the life of Roger Payne and his love for the mountains of Sikkim. The Late Mr. Payne was an ambassador of Sikkim Mountaineering in the western world and held a dream to organize and provide such trainings in Sikkim for the young, he informed. Mr. Payne died aged 55 in an avalanche on Mont Maudit in July 2012.
In his valedictory address, the Tourism Secretary mentioned that such training programmes will help the youth become self employed and create more human resource for adventure tourism. Students of Tourism are the future of this sector, he commented, adding that students should put such training to good use in life and practice regularly and attend more such camps to become adventure tourism experts of Sikkim.
SAMA general secretary, Barap Namgyal, presented a technical report on the training. He expressed hope that the trainees would practice the knowledge gained. He further expressed hope that the guide training cum mountain rescue training would open up more opportunities for local people in income generation directly and indirectly.
He further informed that SAMA has also been encouraging youth towards adventure tourism activities in a bid to open more avenues for them and develop better human resource for the sector in Sikkim.
The course had Barap Namgyal Bhutia of SAMA as Course Director; Deepak Kumar Chettri of SAMA as Chief Instructor; Sagar Rai, Samdup Kazi, Bikash Sharma, Bhaichung Yonzon, Karma Bhutia, Sumit Chettri, Bhoj Raj Rai, Binod Gurung and Dawa Bhutia, all of SAMA, as instructors. Monoj Chettri of Tourism Department, Dawa Sherpa from Sikkim Armed Police and Madan Gurung  and Bikash Sunar of TAAS were present as resource persons.