About Pia Torp

“I couldn’t let go of the images on my retina of children in misery and women in poverty”

Meet Chimalaya Charity’s founder and chairman, Pia Torp. A trip to Nepal in 2009 was the start of her stubborn fight to create better conditions for mothers and newborns in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Why did you start Chimalaya Charity?

I could not help myself. That’s the short answer. My first trip to Nepal was in 2009, when my husband Carsten had to climb Mount Everest. When I got home, I couldn’t let go of the images on my retina of children in misery and women in poverty.

Especially the meeting with the woman Urmila made an impression. She went from house to house begging for food and shelter with a newborn child in her arms and her eldest son in her hand. She had lost her husband and as a woman without a family behind her, there is no support to get in Nepal. She slept with her children in a barn and struggled to survive. I had to go back and help, and I did. That year I was in Nepal three times.

Nepal is a very chaotic country and at first I didn’t know how to help. That’s why I set out to get to know the community well, so that I was able to see where my help could benefit the most. At the beginning I visited some orphanages, but I soon found out that this was not where I should start. Many orphanages were not real at the time. There is a large industry in Nepal based on people from wealthy countries who want to do good and give money to orphanages. In reality, they are doing something bad. But you can’t know that until you’ve been there and got to know it.

In the village of Thimi I met a pottery family. Today I call it “my Nepalese family”. I started importing their crafts, mugs, jugs, bowls and plates, which I sold on in Scandinavia under the name “Chimalaya”. It threw away some money that I wanted to spend on helping the locals.

“Chimalaya” later became “Chimalaya Charity”. How did you decide how to help?

My Norwegian friend Liv Elin Torheim, a professor of nutrition who has worked in Nepal, encouraged me to contact two Nepalese pediatricians she knew. Both doctors had taken part of their training in Norway, but to give back to the community they came from, they volunteered in a medical clinic in the village of Bode twice a week. From the beginning, I had good chemistry with Dr. Ram and Dr. Manju. One day, when we discussed the issue of women and children who are left behind in Nepalese society, I got the idea to create a mothers’ group. I knew from Denmark that social interaction in a mothers’ group is a great help for many mothers, and that the health visitor’s support provides security. It was a good means of reaching women, and at the same time it was a cheap way to start up. My condition was that we should not stand and tell the women what to do and then disappear again. I wanted to make sure there was local grounding all around, so Dr. Ram and I spent time involving local politicians, schools, etc. in our work. This meant that we had the support of the main channels of the local community from the start.

I was very nervous that no one would show up for our first mothers’ group. But when I reached the clinic that day in December 2014, mothers and children were queuing to enter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. As we trained local health workers, we began making home visits to mothers and their newborns. Exactly like in Denmark, where the health nurse comes to visit after the birth. With that model, we can follow the child closely in its first, vulnerable period, which is crucial for reducing infant mortality and preventing malnutrition.

Today Chimalaya Charity has NGO status with local staff. The number of mothers and children that Chimalaya helps grows year by year, and health authorities in Nepal praise Chimalaya’s model. How did you manage to get there?

It all depends on having a dedicated team, and we have that. Everyone here in Denmark works voluntarily and wants to make a difference, as I want. We are passionate and I am proud that so many give their time and experience to Chimalaya voluntarily. In Nepal, we have skilled, dedicated employees who have been with us from the start. In a country with a lot of corruption, we have been lucky to meet people we can trust. But it has also required persistence and patience. It often goes uphill, and not everything succeeds. We have also learned that things take time. I am often quite impatient, but organic, healthy growth where everyone can participate is what works in a country like Nepal.

What does “Chimalaya” mean?

“Chi” means “the good energy” and is an expression known throughout Asia. I put that together with “Himalaya”, because we work in the area around the Himalayan mountains. Later I was made aware that Chimalaya could also be a combination of “Children” and “Himalaya”. It only makes our name even nicer.

What do you hope the future holds for Chimalaya Charity?

My hope is that visits by a health nurse at home will be included in the government’s health program in Nepal. It should not just be an intention, as it is now, but a right that all young children have. No mother should sit right after giving birth, not knowing how to handle her little one. Mother and child must have a health nurse visit, so that we can reduce malnutrition and eliminate the number of children who die because there is no support and help for them and their families.

What did Chimalaya Charity come to mean to you?

I become a better and richer person in the meeting with these beautiful, extremely vulnerable people. At the same time, it is enormously stressful to run an organization in your spare time, because I never let go of the project in my mind. But when I’m But when I’m in Nepal and I hear a mother pointing at her nursing daughter and exclaiming “Chimalaya”, I know why I’m doing this. I am enormously proud. It gives me a lot on the human front. Professionally, it has also had an impact. I work as a psychotherapist, and in meeting with my clients I have gained a greater understanding of fighting for something. I have faith that we will probably get through difficult times. When people in one of the world’s poorest countries can get through life, so can we.