About Us
Our Story
Samriddha Pahad dates back to 2009 and was founded with the intention of enhancing the welfare of mountain communities by facilitating access to financing and other opportunities for sustainable development.
Sir Graham Wrigley, who has been involved with Nepal since the early 1980s and had worked in rural North India in microfinance with a successful not-for-profit organization called CASHPOR, put together a team of Nepalese to launch the program known as "Samriddha Pahad" in Nepal. Together, they sought to comprehend how mountain villages may be better integrated into Nepal's financial and economic development. The Wrigley family and The Blueberry Hill Charitable Trust have all contributed funding.
Our Vision
Samriddha Pahad's mission is to develop local institutions, improve the quality of life in the mountain communities through appropriate livelihood possibilities and sustainable access to finance.
Our Mission
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To give 25,000 people in Nepal's remote regions access to finance where they hadn't previously had such access;
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To demonstrate the viability of the "Mountain Finance" model so that other banks and financial institutions would feel confident offering their services in mountainous regions; and
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To establish SP as a Nepali-owned and run organization.
10 years on, significant progress has been made. SP has raised UD$ 16m for 26,000 clients and 250 community institutions in the east and far west mountain districts of Nepal. Several bigger programmes have followed, and today there is much greater access to finance than back in 2009, though there is still more to be done, and in 2015 Samriddha Pahad was registered as a fully independent not for profit organisation in Nepal, under the section 166 of Company Act 2006 of Nepal.
Currently, Samriddha Pahad continues to work in the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, home to the world third highest mountain Kangchanjunga (8586 M) through the "Samriddha Kangchenjunga Program" with a range of stakeholders to develop sustainable tourism.