NEWS UPDATE!!!

At 10am on Saturday morning, Rachel and Jody made it to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.  It was really hard going with the whole group feeling the affects of altitude sickness.  (ahem, Rachel....barf).

It was amazing to reach the top - very emotional for all - and great to be doing so for such a good cause.  If you haven't yet had a chance to donate, there is still time.  Thank you!!!

Off to Zanzibar for cocktails now! 

Jody & Rachel.

 

At the beginning of 2010, we decided to embark on a series of adventures to challenge ourselves both physically and mentally.  As a result, the following goals were set:

  * Completing the 2010 London Moon Walk - a full marathon walk (26.2 miles) through the streets of London at night

* Completing a half marathon run (13.1 miles)

* Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro – the highest mountain in Africa and fourth highest of the Seven Summits.

The big hill climb!

So, with the London Moonwalk under our belts, on the 2^nd of October we will set off on the hardest of the three challenges.

Mt Kilimanjaro sits on the northern border of , overlooking and just over 200 miles south of the Equator.  

Whilst Mt Kilimanjaro is not a technically difficult climb, the challenge comes from the sheer height of the mountain, making AMS (or Altitude Sickness) the crux of the trek.

Along with being the highest mountain in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, with rising to an altitude of 5,895 m (19,341 ft) above sea level.  Due to its height, the mountain supports 5 major eco-zones: rainforest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and glaciers which makes for a very interesting trek.

We will be climbing the mountain over 7 days via the Machame route, sleeping in tents along the way.  The trek is a 6 day slog upwards and then one day back down.

We plan to document our trip along the way and will put pictures up on this page once we are off the mountain, so you can see where we have been and what we have seen.

Given that we are setting out to conquer Africa’s highest mountain, we wanted to give something back to therefore we are raising money for our chosen charity, The ISIS Foundation.

We have paid for the Kilimanjaro trek ourselves, therefore ALL money raised will go to our chosen charity – The Foundation.

The Foundation

The ISIS Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to make a positive difference to the lives of children in the developing world.  ISIS focuses on health and education programmes for children and their families, in both and .

In , the main focus of ISIS is in the Luwero region, a rural area two hours north of the capital, .  With the help of ISIS, Kiwoko Hospital which started as a clinic under a tree in 1987, has grown to 6 doctors servicing a population of 500,000 people and has wards for men and women, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), maternity, paediatrics, TB, laboratory, a nursing school, HIV/AIDS programmes, eye and dental clinics on a 30 acre site.

has the 3^rd highest birth rate in the world – but also a very high infant mortality rate.  The partnership has led to the creation of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that now assists 500 babies each year.  An accommodation block for Mum’s whose babies are in the NICU is also now nearing completion.

In order to ensure sustainability of the hospital, specialist volunteer medical training is provided to help local staff working in the NICU and Maternity wards care for the babies.

Along with supporting the NICU at , The ISIS Foundation assists the hospital with their development programme which supports people living remotely with HIV/AIDS.  This includes, a nutrition programme, support for community workers assisting in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and support for parents seeking treatment.

also provides funding to support 35 AIDS orphans and 135 children living with HIV through a variety of programmes including education, treatment and living costs.

Please help by supporting us through donating to The Foundation.  All donations are greatly received, no matter how big or small.

To find out more about and the set up of the foundation, visit their website at http://www.isis.bm/indexfound.html

In case you were wondering…. On Saturday 15^th May, we completed the Moon Walk in 7 hours and 20 minutes.  Given that this was to be the easiest of the 3 challenges (the end of the route is literally a walk in the park!) it was hard – very hard!!!

Unfortunately we have had to postpone the half marathon run due to injury, but we will be hard at training for this again when we return from !