Nairobi children to benefit
from a School Bus with Trek to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Feb
2006
STOP PRESS: WE DID IT !!!! :-) Photo evidence the UK team made
the Uhuru peak, the highest point of Kilimanjaro - the roof
of Africa - on March 1st 2006 around 8am.
More information and pictures will come
soon. We are collating them still. But we still need to raise
more money for the School Bus. Having met the children and seen
around the school and climbed the mountain with some of the
teaching staff, we are even more committed to getting to our
total - and the Nairobi children are counting on us to do it,
so please help in whatever small way you can.
Mount
Kilimanjaro, at 5,895m high is
the highest free standing volcano in the world, towering about
six times the height of Snowdon. It has a permanent ice cap
and the altitude causes air to be so thin any exertion is a
major effort. To reach the peak any climber needs great will
power and to take the route very slowly or 'pole, pole' as the
locals say. The mountain is just inside the Tanzanian border
southeast of Kenya.
It will take 5 days to climb
and will take in tropical rainforest, lunar-like landscape due
to the lava, and the snow capped peak.
The link with Nairobi
The original idea came out of
discussions from Dare 2 during the Make Poverty History campaign
in 2005. The group decided it would like to learn more about
life in an African culture and that a link up with a similar
group in Africa would be a great way to achieve this. Their
leader Nigel Panter then set about finding such a group, and
the search led him to Kenya where Church Army Africa are active
and working with many young people. Rev Steve Maina is the youth
minister at a church called St Joseph's and is also the representative
for Church Army Africa. In Kenya 70% of the population is 25
or under, and male life expectancy is 48 years. St Joseph's
in Kabete, a district about 10 miles from Nairobi centre, has
around 1000 members and consequently is heavily involved in
the work with 25 years-and-under age group. When Steve emailed
back to say they were keen to link up with the group in Herne
Bay, it seemed like the ideal match.
A
plan emerges
It was only a short time before
plans were being banded around for some project or task to do
together, to encourage and develop the links between the two
churches. One of the members of St Joseph's runs a company which
does outdoor trips in Africa and guides people up Kilimanjaro,
so it seemed a great match to involve these local people to
organise a huge challenge for us to work together to raise money
for a common locallu needed cause. Steve, who has never climbed
Kilimanjaro before, was launching a development project for
the school run by Church Army in Nairobi called the Church Army
Academy and looking for ways to highlight it.
The Nairobi School children
bus project is launched
It seemed a great way to kick
start the fund raising for the school to use local people to
guide us to the top of the highest mountain in Africa just nearby
in Tanzania. The school is in need of many more classrooms to
be built, and especially a school bus to get the children safely
to and from school, and make it more accessible for many more
children. The bus will cost around £20,000 and many more
thousands are needed for the classrooms.
We decided to focus on a managable amount to raise and focussed
on the School bus.
So 6 climbers from Kenya including
2 school teachers form the school to benefit from the bus, and
Steve Maina will join 6 members from the UK to raise money towards
this total through sponsorship and donations.
The team are looking for business
and personal sponsors so anyone wishing to support the effort
to sponsor or make donations can do so using the links on this
page, or by emailing Nigel
for further information, or visit the Parish Office.
Of course the need to
get as many people as possible to raise money meant that the
offer to join the adventure was widened away from just Christ
Church Herne Bay. So fellow trekkers stretch from Sherbourne
to Hull and Bristol, to join the Herne Bay -ites.
From Kenya: Steve
Maina plus others with only paper forms
If you wish to take a Paper sponsor form around
your place of work or a group or team, email
Nigel and he will send you one. Many thanks to those who are
doing this.
St Joseph's Church Kabete, Nairobi
Kenya - click on above image for more photos of the church
and people
Partnership
Christ Church is looking at a possible partnership with St Joseph's
in Kenya. Read Steve Maina's Partnership Document which explores
some of the reasons this is a sound Biblical relationship for
churches. View document
classrooms.
We decided to focus on a managable amount to raise and focussed
on the School bus. 
