Sir Edmund Hillary's Granddaughter Helps Nepalese

A granddaughter of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary has taken up the family cause of helping the Sherpa people of Nepal, New Zealand's domestic news agency reported Monday.

Amelia Hillary, 18, who has already worked with her father Peter Hillary on several Himalayan development projects in Nepal's Solu Khumbu district, said she wants to give ''continuity'' to her father and grandfather's work.

Hillary plans to take part in celebrations in Nepal's capital, Katmandu, of the inaugural ''Everest Day'' on May 29 — 55 years to the day her grandfather and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In Nepal, she said she hopes to build on the development projects started by her grandfather.

''To give continuity to Hillary's work, they have to be extended to other parts of Nepal as well,'' Amelia Hillary was quoted as telling the Indo-Asian News Service in Nepal. ''This is the biggest challenge and responsibility for the Hillary family.''

The university student also said she hopes to match her father and grandfather's feats by climbing the 29,028-foot mountain one day, New Zealand Press Association said.

After climbing Everest in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary spent much of the rest of his life aiding the impoverished Sherpa people — helping build schools, hospitals, roads, airfields, water supply systems and monasteries. He died in January this year at the age of 88.