KP Kafle: founder of Nepal SEEDS
KP was born in 1960 in the heart of Nepal’s Solukhumbu
District in a village surviving at a subsistence level with no school. In this
remote village, KP grew up seeing no airplanes, cars or buses, had no electricity, running water, or outhouse.
Visiting his Grandma was a two-day barefoot walk on steep rock-strewn trails, across swaying bamboo bridges over fast flowing white water from the Dudh Khosi River.
His father died when KP was six. At 13 years old his widowed mama sent him for salt on a 15-day roundtrip journey down to the Terai, on the border with India. He left home with a woven basket containing a yak wool blanket, a few kilos of rice, fire starting metal and sparking stone.
Carrying a walking stick and wearing cotton pants, a long sleeved jacket and Nepali hat, he met a nearby villager working for the Indian Army to show him the way to India. Instead of getting salt, KP explored the last mountain he could see and ended up in India. KP worked in India for 10 years, then returned to Kathmandu, settled down and married in1982.
Working at a restaurant in Kathmandu
frequented by tourists, in 1985 he met a Californian that sponsored his initial trip to the US to
learn English. He was mentored by this American friend during, and begin to hear other Americans describe their interest in visiting his
beautiful country some day.
He started thinking that guiding treks in his magnificent Himalayas would be interesting and, at the same time he began to develop a plan for helping his people.
He was anxious to return home to his family and to develop the plan for what is now an active trekking business and for Nepal SEEDS.
Today, KP is well known for his trekking business and as Executive Director of Nepal SEEDS. In 2008 he was recognized as one of REI Adventure’s Top Guides of the Year. He continues to develop and expand Nepal SEEDS’ activities in specific regions within the country.
His family, which consists of three sons and one grandchild, continue to live in Kathmandu. But his heart is with the people in those villages where he brings the promise of improving the quality of life for so many.
In 2008, he was recognized as one of REI Adventure’s Top Guides of the Year