who: Kyle Miller, Bart Skorupa, and Ryan Gilpin. when: July 13th - July 20th, 2009. where: Moshi, Tanzania. what: An epic 6-day climb up Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds and awareness for our projects around the globe. Kilimanjaro is Africa's tallest peak, the largest freestanding mountain on earth, and the fourth highest summit of the famed Seven Summits in the mountaineering world.
Follow us on Google Maps. (Click on the green hikers to find "KYMI x 3" and see our latest GPS coordinates.)
100% of your donation will go directly to disadvantaged communities in Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.
To raise $1 for every meter of elevation for Mount Kilimanjaro, yielding a grand total of $5,895 - or $19,341 if you prefer to use feet. As always, 100% of personal donations will go directly to our projects, and we work entirely with local communities in developing world countries to bring about lasting and sustainable change. Donations raised from this climb will be specifically directed towards the following beneficiaries and projects: genocide reconciliation in Rwanda, agricultural development in Uganda, and educational outreach and community building in Tanzania. Please check out our brief, and totally awesome, promotional video above and help us reach for the sky!
RWANDA
GO will continue to expand its One Thousand Hills project in the Muhanga community, with a strong partnership with a locally based NGO entitled United Peace Development (UPD). Specifically, the GO team will work on building new homes for victims of the genocide, participating in Gacaca courts, and also assisting with a youth football tournament. The team will also begin a long-term agriculture and livestock project that will enable the community to further develop itself. With this unique mix of proven economic, agricultural, and genocide reconciliation solutions, our on-the-ground team will lay the ground work to help the Muhanga community thrive.
UGANDA
GO is excited to partner with Uganda Rural Fund (www.ugandaruralfund.org), and to extend our community outreach and income activities by providing sustainable agricultural solutions to rural Ugandan farmers. Specifically, the GO team will be managing and assisting with the continuation of a goat rearing project started in 2008, as well as helping to set up an irrigation network and fruit farming plantation. These services will encourage a shift away from subsistence farming in many disadvantaged regions of Uganda, as well as provide a central location for local farmers to gather and exchange information. It is our hope that this agricultural project, if adequately sustainable, will become the first of many upcoming GO Green initiatives, aimed at addressing both climate change and extreme poverty.
TANZANIA
GO is looking forward to the start of an exciting new partnership with Mama Hope (www.mamahope.org), through which we will help build the St. Timothy school in the village of Moshi at the base of Kilimanjaro. All donations raised will go towards the construction of a multi-purpose facility with classrooms that will eventually accommodate 300 students, and provide living quarters for an additional 100 children. The facility will also contain a vocational training center, a dispensary, and a community garden. St Timothy's will serve as a combination of school, orphanage, and community center, where locals can come for information, support, and health services (such as free HIV testing and family planning advice).
