JAMES GIAMBRONE SNACKS ON YAKS: WFP food is unloaded.

Somewhere in the mid-hills of western Nepal, in the shadow of Manaslu, is a small, impoverished village at an altitude of 3,780 metres. Thanks to a joint initiative by Himalayan Experience, the World Food Programme (WFP), SmileHigh and Himalayan Health and Environmental Services, Samagaon has just received much needed aid in the form of health and dental services, food, and human expertise.

Samagaon is the gateway for many expeditions to Manaslu, which at 8,156 metres is the eighth highest peak in the world. Mountaineering expeditions have passed through this village since Manaslu was first climbed in 1956, with 34 expeditions in 2008 alone. But there has been very little development. The closest health facilities are either a six-day trek or an expensive helicopter flight away.

Russell Brice is a guide from New Zealand who has climbed in Nepal for 35 years. This year his company, Himalayan Experience, organised an expedition to Manaslu.

"When I arrived in Samagaon I was shocked to see how backward this village was. I expected poverty but I was not prepared for what I saw. People are in desperate need of health and education," he said.

According to the WFP, 48 per cent of the children in the area are underweight and nearly 70 per cent of the children under five are stunted.

"There is only one school, which is more like a shack, and the area has no health facility or dental clinic," said Dr Mingma Nuru Sherpa, a dentist from Khumjung in the Khumbu region.

"The people live how we used to live 30 years ago. Up until I was six years old I did not own shoes, and if Sir Edmund had not built a school in Khumjung, I would not have been able to become a dentist," he recalled.

Read the full article in this week's issue of Nepali Times.