Image: Getty Images/Stock Photo
Trek4Mandela climbers on their way to summit Kilimanjaro for Mandela Day
The Trek4Mandela team will summit Kilimanjaro on 18 July 2021 as an inspirational climb to support the fight against period poverty.
Image: Getty Images/Stock Photo
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2021 Trek4Mandela expedition team has been the most committed ever, insisting that they want to summit to help bring hope in the spirit of Nelson Mandela in these difficult times.
According to The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Trek4Mandela was founded in 2012 by South African mountaineer Sibusiso Vilane and Richard Mabaso, CEO of the Ibumba Foundation. Each year, the Imbumba Foundation has been taking a team to Tanzania to trek Kilimanjaro. And this year is no different.
Summiting Kilimanjaro for Mandela Day
The Trek4Mandela team will be attempting the summit of Mount. Kilimanjaro on 18 July 2021, as an inspirational climb and to continue to support the fight against period poverty, which has become more paramount due to the global pandemic.
Through the 2021 Expedition, the team hopes to reach an additional one million girl learners through their Caring4Girls programme: (100 000 girl learners from each of the nine South African provinces, 50 000 girl learners from Tanzania and a further 50 000 from Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana).
“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,” Sibusiso Vilane, adventurer, mountaineer, and 2021 Trek4Mandela expedition leader told IOL. “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 it as an excuse not to go climb mountains.
“People have just come back from climbing and safely submitting Mount Everest and K2. Lots of people have been climbing Kilimanjaro even last year and throughout the COVID-19 period. “
Thuli Madonsela joins in
Meanwhile former South African Public Protector and Humanitarian, Professor Thuli Madonsela has committed to partaking in this year’s 2021 expedition after completing the Trek4Mandela summit on Women’s Day 2019.
“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 explanatory ubuntu reflected in selfless service to humanity and my quest is also 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.”
