Kunde Hospital is a hospital in the town of Kunde

Kunde (village)

Kunde is a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal within the Sagarmatha National Park. It is directly adjacent to Khumjung village in the valley at the foot of Khumjung Khumbi Yul Lha, the sacred mountain of the Sherpas. The Khumjung-Valley is located between 3800m and 4000m above sea level. Kunde...

, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, that serves 8,000 people from Khumbu

Khumbu

Khumbu is located in northeastern Nepal on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest. It is part of the Solukhumbu District, which in turn is part of the Sagarmatha Zone. Khumbu is one of three subregions of the main Khambu and Sherpa settlement of the Himalaya, the other two being Solu and Pharak...

 district. It is situated 3,840 metres above sea level and was founded by Sir Edmund Hillary

Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...

 in 1966. The hospital was funded and operated by The Himalayan Trust

Himalayan Trust

The Himalayan Trust is a non-profit organization set up by Sir Edmund Hillary after his successful first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953...

 until 1976 and is now supported by the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation.

After Hillary climbed Everest in 1953, he led many further expeditions to Nepal. From the early 1960s, these expeditions had a focus on improving the health and social welfare of the people of Nepal, including the improvement of water supplies, the building of schools, bridges and an airstrip at Lukla

Lukla

Lukla is a town in the Khumbu area of the Solukhumbu District in the Sagarmatha Zone of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at , it is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Everest to arrive...

, and the provision of medical care and a programme of vaccination against smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

.

In 1966, Hillary, with overseas volunteers and local people, built the hospital at Kunde. The hospital was initially staffed by overseas volunteers, provided through the Volunteer Service Abroad

Volunteer Service Abroad

VSA is an international volunteering organisation based in Wellington, New Zealand. It is an independent charity and is non-governmental, non-religious and non-political...

 organisation and later by The Himalayan Trust

Himalayan Trust

The Himalayan Trust is a non-profit organization set up by Sir Edmund Hillary after his successful first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953...

and the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, but since 2002, it has been wholly staffed and run by local people.