By Joe Pisani
NORWALK — In 2007, Dean Gestal, Executive Director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport, spent ten days in Nepal with his friend Dean Cardinale, hiking to the base camp of Mount Everest. They trekked together and they bunked together in small ‘tea houses’ on the mountain. It was an experience that started Gestal on another journey — working with his friend to improve the lives of children around the world who have nothing.
The pair first met some 20 years ago when Gestal lived in Salt Lake City and spent time hiking and skiing with Cardinale, who was a member of the snow ski patrol in Utah and owner of World Wide Trekking. His adventure travel company brought him around the world, guiding groups of climbers and trekkers in mountain regions, which included his home state of Utah along with Tanzania, Nepal and Peru, where the poverty and deprivation he witnessed led to his commitment to give back.
As a sister venture, he founded the Human Outreach Project, (HOP) a 501(c)(3) dedicated to the vision that “trekkers could — and should — give back to the communities in which they travel.”
The organization’s special focus is to help youth and partner with communities to serve their needs and “co-create sustainable solutions to improve health and education.”
Gestal, who serves on the board of HOP, recently traveled to Tanzania with Cardinale and hiked up Mt. Kilimanjaro. While there, he witnessed firsthand the success that HOP has had in that country since it established an orphanage and developed a food program for public school students.
“It wakes me up when I go there and see these children and the little opportunity they have,” Gestal said. “It’s a great wake-up call and reminds me of the obligation we all have to help people who have less than we do.”
Gestal, who has helped with fund-raising and advancing the mission of HOP for 15 years, said the orphanage and lunch program continue to grow and are noteworthy successes in a country that is among the poorest 15 nations in the world.
In addition to being a humanitarian, Cardinale is a world-class mountaineer who has climbed six of the world’s tallest peaks and has taken 65 groups to the summit of Kilimanjaro, which is the highest mountain in Africa at 19,341 feet above sea level.
Cardinale was inspired to found the Human Outreach Project after Ang Pasang Sherpa, his guide on a 2005 expedition up Mount Everest, was killed in an avalanche shortly afterward. Cardinale vowed to help Ang Pasang’s wife and three children, and from that initial commitment, HOP was formed.
“Dean made a decision to do whatever he could to help the family,” Gestal said. “It was the catalyst that led him to start the Human Outreach Project.”
HOP also provides supplies for the Himalayan Children’s Foundation, a dental clinic and a hospital.
The initiative in Tanzania began in 2008, when the organization donated supplies to an existing medical clinic and orphanage. HOP later started its own orphanage. In 2009, it purchased four acres of land and built a permanent home for the HOP Kilimanjaro Kids Community outside the town of Arusha.
After getting government approval, the orphanage opened its doors for 12 children and staff members, Gestal said. Each year, their efforts expanded — they began a “cow project” that provided milk and income, they constructed a water tower, they launched a tutoring program so the children would be eligible for private school, and they planted gardens and raised livestock so the community could sustain itself.
Equally ambitious, in 2016 HOP began a school lunch program for 700 students at Makuyuni Primary School, which led to an increase in enrollment to 1100 students. A year later, wash basins were erected next to the classrooms and a dining pavilion was built so students could eat lunch sheltered from the sun and rain, Gestal said.
“Most of the kids walk two to five miles to the school every day,” Gestal said. “Many of them never had lunch before. With this program, they get a free meal and very often it’s their only meal.”
The program was so successful that another public school approached HOP, and a lunch program was begun there.
Gestal said that in order to cook the lunches, which largely consist of corn and beans, they developed a plan that encourages student participation.
“To have lunch, every child needs to bring a stick, which they pick up on their walk to school, and every morning at 8, they pile up the 1000 sticks outside the cafeteria, which are used as fuel to prepare the lunches,” he said. “This lets them be involved in the solution and the contribution.”
The cost of feeding 1100 students a day is $150, he said.
Since the orphanage opened, the number of children has increased to 32, and a project is underway to build another facility that will let their capacity grow to 50.
Because tourism drives the economy of Tanzania, speaking English is crucial to employment. Toward that goal, the children at the Kilimanjaro Kids Community attend private school, where English is taught.
“When they graduate they’ll be able to get a job and work in the hotels or airport or any of the other opportunities there,” Gestal said.
Reflecting on the success of these humanitarian efforts, Cardinale has said, “When Human Outreach Project was established in 2006, I could never have imagined what it would grow to become. From a simple wish to help people and communities in the areas we visit on our treks, HOP has grown into an international phenomenon. In the previous few years we have experienced unprecedented growth, launched new programs, and are working to expand and strengthen our existing ones. The overwhelming support of the donors has enabled us to help these special communities throughout the world.”
For more information, visit www.humanoutreachproject.org.
