7 Nepali women to scale Mount Kilimanjaro

KATHMANDU - As part of their mission to conquer the seven highest mountains in seven continents of the world, a group of seven young Nepali women left for Tanzania on Monday to scale the African crown - the Mount Kilimanjaro.

After successfully scaling the Mount Everest in Nepal, Australian Mount Kosciuszko and Europe's tallest Mount Elbrus, seven spirited Nepali women from different walks of life - Shailie Basnet, Asha Kumari Singh, Junu Shrestha, Nimdoma Sherpa, Pema Diki Sherpa, Pujan Acharya and Maya Gurung - left for Tanzania today with the theme "Education, Environment and Empowerment".

According to Basnet, who is also the coordinator of the team, the effort was aimed at promotion of her country in the land of Africa.

"We want to make sure that everyone in Africa knows about Nepal, about Nepali people and the opportunities the country holds in tourism and economic sector," Basent told Xinhua before her departure at the Kathmandu airport.

According to the team, their mission to scale all the highest peaks of the seven continents of the world would break the gender stereotypes in trekking field.

"There are only 51 women out of the 300 climbers who have scaled these seven mountains," said Junu Shrestha. "We want to break the gender stereotypes and set an example in the male- dominated climbing world that women are also capable."

"We want to earn respect for all the women climbers in Nepal and elsewhere in the world. We want to raise awareness among the female community that girls are not always supposed to do regular jobs and get married. There is much more the world has to offer," Shrestha said.

After Mount Kilimanjaro, the team plans to scale the other three mountains, namely Mount Aconcagua in South America, Mount Denali in North America and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.