Sam’s first visit to Nepal was when he was just 8 years old, travelling with his family on a trek in Langtang. His next visit was 12 years later in the autumn of 2015, following the devastating earthquake which destroyed thousands of lives across the country, tearing apart schools, homes and families. Sam was among the first to trek to the Everest and Annapurna areas following the earthquake, he witnessed first-hand the devastation that left over a million children without a school.

It was on this trip that Sam met Abhishek Pandey from Kathmandu. Abhishek had volunteered to help the Juniper Trust locate and rebuild ten schools, focusing on areas that would receive little or no other funding. Incredibly, 18 months later, the ten schools were complete and over 2000 children were back at school with new shoes, uniforms and equipment.

Together, in Nov 2017, they organised a group of their friends and volunteers to go back to these remote villages, to help where needed at the existing schools, help build new ones and take badly needed equipment, uniforms and equipment for the children. Adventure Aid Nepal was born. The energy and inspiration continued with trips in 2018 and 2019 and 2022 after a break due to the COVID restrictions. 2023 will be their fifth year of taking volunteers to Nepal.