Five people are training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse projects in Kenya.
By Rachel Harris, one of five people who will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse projects in Kenya
This is an Olympic year. For the athletes who competed in London, it was the culmination of years of training. In October, I am taking on my own Olympic challenge by climbing Kilimanjaro. I’m not known as a mountaineering kind of girl, so here’s why am I training to climb the highest mountain in Africa.
Kibera is the largest slum in Africa, situated in Nairobi, Kenya. It is unimaginably destitute with no public services, and over one million people do not have any basic sanitation. People live in tiny houses made of mud just 12 feet square.
The conditions are unbearable to live in; open raw sewage is everywhere and children only have trash to play in. Too many to count become sick and die. A third of those that survive are orphans and many are abandoned. Living on the streets, they often become drug addicts or are forced into prostitution.
Just surviving is a challenge of Olympic proportions for all who call Kibera “home.” The conditions are awful, but the sad truth is that these conditions are unnecessary – totally unnecessary. So I’m climbing so that together we can help as many as possible climb out of this poverty mountain. I really appreciate any support you can give.
