The ascent to Mount Kilimanjaro’s summit gives you a lot of time to think. In fact, to survive the final trudge up a never ending mountain, I would strongly suggest focusing your mind on something else. Anything but the fact you are in the dark, in sub zero temperatures, caught in the grip of gruelling altitude sickness and severe sleep deprivation. There is no doubt that the last night of the climb was the biggest challenge I have ever faced. So to keep myself going, I tried to focus on the reasons behind the sponsored climb and the primary school children I had met on a project visit a few days before.

My fellow fundraisers and I were keen to see what sort of projects Childreach International would invest our money in. We all knew the charity’s mantra was that every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential. But the visit to the primary school in Kifumbu brought this strong and simple vision to life and reinforced my belief in the charity’s education initiatives.

Primary school tuition fees were abolished in 2002, giving every child in Tanzania the right to a basic education. But a lack of resources for the additional classrooms and teachers needed to accommodate the increase in pupils has been a big problem. I was eager to see how Childreach International had helped to improve the learning conditions for children in the struggling government primary school we were going to visit. But first we had to get there.

Our journey to Kifumbu soon became a white knuckle ride up a steep and slippery dirt track. Eventually the bus we were travelling in became too entrenched by the mud to move any further and got stuck half way up from our destination. We continued by foot, accompanied by some excitable local children and their make shift sledge made from wood and palm leaves- evidently a more effective mode of transport than our bus.

We heard the pupils from the school long before we saw them. They came running down the hill to welcome us, singing, clapping and spraying us with flowers.  It was an overwhelming welcome we could never have anticipated. The night before our visit, a few people had said they were bracing themselves for an upsetting experience - this was a world where life was tough and the grind of poverty is felt daily by its communities. But the children who greeted us were high spirited and full of energy.  One of the children imaginatively decided we looked like flowers in our bright yellow (oh so attractive) Childreach International t-shirts. The most reassuring thing was that for all the difficulties they no doubt had to contend with, they were still kids being kids; they weren’t being denied a childhood. Whilst most were well behaved and polite, a few were cheeky and mischievous and reminded me of children I knew in England.

Moses, the head teacher of the primary school, gave us a tour of the grounds. He showed us an old classroom to compare with the new ones being built. Small desks made for one were shared by multiple pupils in an overcrowded, hot and dingy room. In comparison, the new classrooms were bright and airy with stimulating murals on the wall. Unsanitary toilets were being replaced with new toilet blocks and hand washing facilities to help protect children from common diseases like cholera and diarrhoea. Moses explained that for some of the pupils, the mid day meal provided by the school might be their only proper nutrition for the day. Catering for several hundred pupils with the two small fires they had seemed a tall order. So the new cooking facilities being built would undoubtedly make an immense difference - not only to the children but also to the staff who arduously prepared the meals.

I was aware that like many struggling primary schools in Tanzania, the rate of pupil enrolment does not necessarily reflect the rate of actual attendance. But with the ongoing improvements, the school could provide a safe and engaging environment for the children. It was hoped that all the changes would contribute to a better learning environment that would in turn help to nurture higher performance and lower absenteeism.

Childreach International’s initiatives are prided on sustainability and a keen interest is taken in keeping projects carbon neutral to avoid increasing environmental degradation. This ethos was positively reinforced by each of us planting a tree in the school grounds with the help of the children, as part of a Carbon Offsetting programme in Tanzania

Childreach’s mission is to empower children and their families to help them help themselves. I witnessed a genuine alliance with local communities who were given the responsibility to plan and implement their own projects. There is a very strong work ethic in Tanzania; the people I met were proud, resilient and resourceful. This reinforced my belief that Childreach International’s grassroots approach to international development had the ability to create real and lasting change. I was pleased to see that all those Saturdays spent sweating it out in a dragon costume, rattling a tin, had really paid off!

Kirstie Brewer

To find out more about Kili 4 Kids and other Challenge Events with Childreach International contact David by email challengeevents@childreach.org.uk or call 0203 137 5500.

Additional information is also available in the Challenge Events section of our website.