Natural-Born Doer

A journey from Alberta to Nepal ignites 
passions for change in Elsie James

Elsie James always wanted to trek to Mount Everest—so after retiring from banking at the age of 60, she set out with friends on what she hoped would be the trip of a lifetime. She never imagined that journey would spark a love affair with a country she now calls her second home.

“When I got back (to Calgary) I couldn’t wait to get involved in some kind of service there,” she says. After a little searching she found Partnership Canada, a Calgary non-profit that was sending schoolbooks and medical provisions to Nepal. Within four months she was back—now volunteering—researching ways it could expand its efforts beyond supplies. “I added a people component, and we started taking retired nurses and teachers to do train-the-trainer programs at health posts, hospitals and village schools.”

When Partnership closed shop, James started volunteering directly with Nepali NGOs, planning social programs, as well as actively organizing medical and dental clinics, nutrition and sanitation workshops, and adult literacy classes. Over the years, she’s helped build schools and develop curricula, and volunteered with local outfitters running treks for tourists. That, she says, was a means to an end. “I organized trekking groups to come to Nepal so people could see the projects we were doing there.” Inspired by what they saw, many donated money, and became her lifelong friends in the process.

Now 15 years later, James is aligned with Medical Mercy Canada. The work, she says, has always been about education—teaching people how to care for themselves and their families. “We’ve taught people how to make filters so they can purify water and how to build inexpensive, safe latrines.” None of these efforts are sustainable, she says, “if we don’t leave behind knowledge and skills.”

Alongside hands-on overseas volunteering, James also founded her own organization called Willing Hands Around the Globe. The group has raised thousands of dollars for the Nepali projects—not just in Calgary but in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia, thanks largely to the trekkers she inspired to help.

How does James manage the workload? As a mother of seven, her life was always defined by a gruelling daily schedule that taught her the power of doing. For her 75th birthday she returned to Everest with two of her grandsons, in an adventure she knighted The Trek 4 Kanti Kids. Together they raised $28,000 for Kathmandu’s Kanti Children’s Hospital, not only continuing her mighty efforts but now passing the mantle to the next generation.

—Deborah Sanborn