The Baki sisters have spent the last month breaking in their hiking shoes as they prepare for an eight-day trek to deliver medical, dental and school supplies to the remote communities surrounding the Everest Base Camp.

“We’ve definitely prepared and trained for it,” said 17-year-old Celine, who will be joined on the trip by her sisters and fellow Moravian Academy students, Sophia, 15, and Julia, 13.

The sisters and their parents, Sarah and Fayez, will fly 21 hours to the capital of Nepal and then take a helicopter to the Tenzing-Hillary Airport, nicknamed “the most dangerous airport in the world.”

Their early March arrival will come at the end of the region’s winter season. While temperatures are expected to climb into the 50s during the day, night-time temperatures are likely to remain below freezing.

The Baki family will travel with local guides and porters, stopping for the night in local “tea houses” — mountain shelters with a wood-burning stove to heat the communal area.

The sisters aim to raise $5,000 in donations to the American Himalayan Foundation and have also leveraged their father’s dentistry contacts to collect medical and dental supplies.

“Health is No. 1 — you can’t really do anything if you’re not healthy; you can’t learn, you can’t go to school, all of that, so giving back to the hospitals, the dental clinics I think is really important,” Celine said, “because I think a lot of times in first-world countries we kind of take that for granted.”

The sisters have launched a GoFundMe to support donations to the American Himalayan Foundation. The Baki family also recognized Henry Schein and Ultradent for donating dental supplies.

This is the fourth charity-oriented trip the sisters have taken in the last five years. They delivered supplies to rangers on trips to Kenya and Botswana and raised funds for the Eve Branson Foundation that supports communities in the mountains of Morocco.

Their older brother, Ryan, completed a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in 2018, but the 21-year-old will not be along for the sisters’ ascent to the Everest Base Camp, which lies more than 17,500 feet above sea level.

Celine said the sisters’ natural competitiveness will help them on the climb, adding, “No one wants to be the last one.”

Impact of travel

All three sisters said their travels have been eye-opening.

“I’m excited to go visit a new place and see how their culture is there,” Julia said, “and give back.”

Although many travelers settle on a favorite destination, Celine said the Baki family tries not to go to the same place twice.

The sisters’ trips to see rangers in action in Africa inspired Celine, who will study biology at Lehigh University next year, to seek out a future that includes study abroad and a potential career helping animals.

Sophia also said travel has shaped her identity.

“Seeing different perspectives— that was really important for me and to be more grateful for everything I have,” Sophia said.

The sisters’ mother said society is too focused on the individual and she’d like to see her children push past that perspective.

“We all are together, and it’s important also to be connected with others and making sure others are OK,” Sarah said, “because if others are OK, we’re all OK, so it can not only just be us. We’re all connected together.”

The sisters are already “citizens of the world,” Fayez said, noting that their family heritage gives the girls citizenship in America, Canada, Lebanon and Switzerland.

“Travel is probably the most important thing to do, aside from the routines of life, as an activity. I just think it changes your perspective on everything,” Fayez said. “It makes you more daring. It makes you more exciting. It makes you more interesting.”