Cape Town - TREK4Mandela climbers are gearing up to summit the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro as part of marking Mandela Day.
The 2020 expedition was initially postponed due to Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions, but now the climbers are more determined to reach greater heights.
Every year since 2012, on Mandela Day, the Imbumba Foundation has been taking a team to Tanzania to trek up Kilimanjaro.
All this in support of the Trek4Mandela initiative.
The summiting is aimed at raising funds for the Imbumba Foundation’s Caring4Girls initiative, that empowers young girls and affords them access to menstrual hygiene support.
Adventurer, mountaineer, and Trek4Mandela expedition leader, Sibusiso Vilane said now more than ever it was important for the Trek4Mandela expedition to continue.
“Our social challenges like sanitation for underprivileged girls are still here, so it is important that we go to climb Kilimanjaro during the month of July as we have done in the past eight years.
“The mountain is safe, and we are using a less crowded route, too.
“Covid-19 has become a part of our lives; the challenges we had before are still there.
“Therefore, it is critically important for us not to use Covid-19 as an excuse not to go climb mountains.
“People have just come back from climbing and safely summiting Mount Everest and K2. Lots of people have been climbing Kilimanjaro even last year and throughout the Covid-19 period," Vilane said.
Professor Thuli Madonsela, who successfully summited Kilimanjaro in 2019 to mark Women's Day as part of Trek4Mandela, said she had unfinished business with the mountain and will thus be climbing again this year.
“I’m going back to summit Kilimanjaro under the Trek4Mandela #Caring4Girls expedition to raise funds to end period poverty for girls in honour of Nelson Mandela’s birthday and exemplary Ubuntu reflected in selfless service to humanity.
“The quest is also about unfinished personal business with Kilimanjaro and my quest to rally all around an all-hands-on-deck collaboration to accelerate progress on social justice for all with no one left behind,” Madonsela said.
DotAfrica, who are Trek4Mandela’s headline sponsors, have been of significant support towards the expedition.
Due to the shortcomings of Covid19, it is through their sponsorship that the foundation was able to proceed with the Trek4Mandela Expedition this year.
The Imbumba Foundation, which has been the custodian for Mandela Day for the past nine years, has, through the Caring4Girls Programme, been able to provide more than 1 million girls with sanitary protection since 2012, bridging the gap of “period poverty”.
Cape Times