Himalayan - Sherpa Communities
MFTF–Himalayan Resilience Initiative
Currently challenges in Nepal, have become considerably more difficult—particularly because climate risk is now interacting with the longstanding problems of remoteness, healthcare access, education, and infrastructure. In the Sherpa communities, the emphasis concentrates on education, health, culture, environment, livelihoods and emergency response, particularly in Solukhumbu.
Mountain medical care and emergency response
MFTF continues to Fund several strategically located medical hubs linked to smaller satellite clinics, rather than constructing numerous independent clinics. Each hub should have emergency medicine capability, maternal care, diagnostics, pharmacy, oxygen, telemedicine, portable ultrasound, communications equipment and reliable backup power.
The particularly valuable addition would be a mountain medical evacuation system: locally trained first responders, communications equipment, pre-positioned emergency supplies and formal helicopter/aviation evacuation arrangements where geography permits.
The underlying problem is not simply the absence of hospitals. It is the enormous distance between a critically ill person and definitive care.
Climate-resilient schools and community centers
A school should function as both an educational institution and a community resilience center.
Buildings could incorporate seismic reinforcement, flood/landslide-resistant siting, solar power and batteries, satellite communications, potable-water storage, sanitation facilities, emergency food and medical stores, and accommodations capable of temporarily sheltering displaced families
Glacial, flood and landslide early-warning systems
The funding of a network combining river gauges, rainfall stations, glacier/glacial-lake monitoring, satellite data, sirens, radio, mobile alerts and village-level evacuation protocols. Technology without local implementation is insufficient: every participating community should have mapped evacuation routes, designated high-ground assembly areas and scheduled drills.
Water, power and communications independence
The Remote Himalayan communities need infrastructure that continues functioning when roads disappear.
By funding community-scale solar plus battery storage, protected drinking-water systems, satellite communications, radio networks and redundant power for schools and health facilities.
Our philosophy is more micro-infrastructure rather than massive infrastructure. A small solar/storage system powering a clinic after a landslide can have greater humanitarian value than an expensive centralized project whose transmission route has been destroyed.
The recent disaster illustrates the vulnerability of large infrastructure: hydropower projects, roads and transmission systems were heavily affected, with hundreds of workers trapped in hydropower tunnels.
Local human capital and permanent endowment
Establish scholarships and fellowships for Sherpa and other Himalayan students in medicine, nursing, teaching, engineering and emergency management, tied where appropriate to several years of service in their communities. Fund continuing education for existing teachers, nurses and health workers
Restricted Reserve
Endowment reserve so that infrastructure built in 2027 is still operating in 2047.
Support The Arts.
*Private Collection
Invest In Girls
“Tell Me More” — Investing in the Future
The Moore Family Trust Foundation has often discovered some of its most meaningful opportunities not in a boardroom or through a formal presentation, but through conversation—a moment when an important need becomes personal, immediate, and impossible to overlook.
Such was the beginning of our alignment with Invest in Girls (IIG) and its work in financial education.
The conversation began over a casual dinner in Boston between Randal G. “Ran” Moore, Chairman of the Moore Family Trust Foundation, and Abigail “Abby” Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Investments.
Abby Johnson
Ran has long held Abby in tremendous admiration—not only for her extraordinary leadership within the financial services industry, but also for her commitment to expanding financial opportunity, inclusion, and education, particularly for girls and women.
During dinner, Abby spoke enthusiastically about the Teen Girl Learning Center and the broader work being undertaken to give young women the financial knowledge, confidence, and practical skills necessary to shape their own futures.
Ran’s response was characteristically simple:
“Tell me more.”
Two hours later, long after dinner had been cleared, the conversation continued.
They spoke about what financial education can mean in the life of a young woman: the confidence to understand money rather than fear it; the ability to make informed decisions about education, careers, savings, investing, and financial independence; and, perhaps most importantly, the understanding that she has agency over her own economic future.
Knowing Ran, a plan was probably already taking shape before that winter evening in Boston had ended.
His philosophy has always been straightforward: listen carefully, understand the need, conduct the necessary due diligence—and when the case is compelling, act.
Today, the Moore Family Trust Foundation remains immensely proud of its role in supporting this work and investing in the financial futures of girls and young women.
They Are The Success
Yet neither Abby Johnson nor Ran Moore would consider themselves the success story.
That distinction belongs entirely to the young women themselves—to those who attended, learned, persevered, asked questions, overcame setbacks, challenged expectations, and ultimately put that knowledge to work in their own lives.
As Ran has said:
“They are the success. They did the hard work. They made the sacrifices and worked through the occasional setback. They are the ones who should be honored. All we did was write the check.”
That sentiment captures something fundamental to the philanthropic philosophy shared by Abby Johnson and Ran Moore.
Philanthropy can provide an opportunity. Education can provide knowledge. Institutions can provide resources.
But the individual must ultimately transform opportunity into achievement.
And that is why this investment matters.
Abby Johnson and Ran Moore are indeed immensely proud—not of themselves, but of the girls and young women whose determination, accomplishments, and futures make this effort so important.
They are the investment. They are the achievement. They are the success.
Abigail “Abby” Johnson & Randal G. “Ran” Moore
Investing in opportunity. Investing in knowledge. Investing in the future.
Private Collection
Harvard Kennedy School
Harvard Kennedy School: Loyalty Society