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Friends & PartnersAnia Lichota
Ania Lichota never had a passport growing up in communist Poland. She is an Executive Director of an investment bank in London. Ania Lichota summited Mt. Everest on May 22 along with six fellow climbers. Ania’s conquest of the highest mountain in the world completes her circuit of climbing the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. The Sarswati Foundation Leadership Team and all of our supporters, are incredibly proud of Ania and her dedication to philanthropy through her love for climbing. Ania’s aim is also to commemorate two outstanding and world renowned Polish climbers, Wanda Rutkiewicz and Jerzy Kukuczka both of whom died while climbing mountains in Nepal. Rutkiewicz is regarded as one of the greatest woman mountaineers ever. She was the first European women and the first Pole to climb Mount Everest successfully in 1978. She died while descending from K2 in the summer of 1986. Jerzy Kukuczka became the second man, after Reinhold Messner, to climb all 14 mountains higher than eight-thousand meters. He died while attempting an alpine style climb of the unclimbed South face of Lhotse (8,516 meters) in 1989. Nicholas Kang Nicholas has been the Director of Development and Public Relations for the Sarswati Foundation since Summer 2009. After spending his high school and post-high school days volunteering throughout local communities in British Columbia, Canada, Nicholas decided to found the Smart Step Youth Initiative Program. This socially innovative program was created to be the answer to a negative youth stereotype problem that has been detrimental to the development of youth in small Canadian communities. Summer 2009 was the first year of the Smart Step Youth Initiative Program, and with its success brings interest in new communities. In Summer 2010, Smart Step will be running in both Merritt, BC, Kamloops, BC, and Smyrna Beach, Florida with a goal to have spread to 10 North American communities by 2012. Nicholas hopes to bridge the gap between North American and Nepalese lifestyles to educate and inspire young people around the world through motivational and inspirational speeches at high schools and youth conferences. Nicholas has also had the opportunity to volunteer in Tactic, Guatemala helping prepare grounds for a new school. Through his limited experience, Nicholas has decided to further his studies in sociology and political science in hope to cause effective social change in communities around the world. Jen Lemen & Stacey Monk |