Alliance of elite mountain runners, youth, business, government and UN representatives to reach summit on UN Day
LAUSANNE: 14 October 2021 – The Sustainable Mountain Alliance will join an elite group of elite mountain runners, leading politicians, United Nations officials, doctors, scientists, academics and youth leaders in a high-profile advocacy climb of Africa’s highest peak in October to raise funds for and awareness of the need for more equitable distribution of COVID19 vaccines.
The Big Climb is one of the early members of the SMA, co-ordinated by the Kilimanjaro Initiative (KI) and supported by the UNFCU Foundation. A total of 34 climbers, representing different cultures, backgrounds and continents, will make the ascent. These include ten sponsored youth from community projects and schools in Tanzania and Kenya, and some of the world’s fastest female mountain runners – including Mountain Partnership Goodwill Ambassador Mira Rai, an award-winning trail and sky runner from Nepal, Maude Mathys from Switzerland, and Francesca Canepa from Italy. The climbers plan to reach the summit symbolically on United Nations Day, 24 October.
For the past 15 years, KI has organized annual climbs of the mountain with marginalized youth from East African’s biggest informal settlements in an Outward Bound style leadership training programme. Director Tim Challen said this year the group partnered with other organizations to bring attention to the challenge of “vaccine justice” and vaccine hesitancy across the Global South.
“As the WHO Director-General has said, we must work together as one global family to prioritize those most at risk of severe diseases and death, in all countries,” said Challen, who also serves as director of Global Marketing Affairs at the UN Financial Credit Union (UNFCU) in Geneva. “This endeavour, which we are calling ‘The Big Climb,’ represents our contribution to this effort.”
Current partners include the UNFCU Foundation, Sport and Sustainability International (SandSI), the African Union, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the Marangu Hotel, Ethiopian Airlines, the Women’s Brain Project, and the Phoenix Design Aid (PDAID) Foundation. KI also is a member of the Mountain Partnership, an official United Nations partnership network dedicated to improving the lives of mountain peoples and protecting mountain environments around the world.
Ingrid Beutler, co-founder of the SMA, did a sustainability assessment of The Big Climb and said it is contributing directly to nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. “For example,” she said. “The climb is coordinated by Marangu Hotel, one of the largest employers in Marangu, providing employment for their family of employees and the mountain guides and porters with whom they work in the Kilimanjaro region. More than 800 people linked with the climb will directly benefit from its financial impact in a region that has suffered greatly due to lack of tourism.”
Sebastian Copeland, award-winning photographer, author, polar explorer and environmental advocate, joined the climb both because of the COVID cause, and climate change. “After extensively documenting the rapidly-disappearing ice at both poles of the Arctic and Antarctica, I am anxious to see the once-famous snows of Kilimanjaro before they disappear forever,” he said. “The glacier that once lined its volcanic crater has shrunken to just a shadow of its former glory.”
Challen said other notable celebrities and personalities will be announced after the climb has begun. “For security reasons and because of individual requests, we are withholding some names until after the climb,” he said. “But rest assured, these are persons of great interest to the international community.”
How to help:
The Big Climb has partnered with both COVAX and the African CDC to channel contributions directly into the arms of people needing vaccines. Every donation of $5 buys ensures one person gets fully vaccinated.
For more information:
Web : www.thebigclimb.org
To donate: Donate – The Big Climb
Twitter: @climb_big
Instagram: the.big.climb
Facebook: The Big Climb (of Kilimanjaro)
Contact:
Ingrid Beutler, Co-Founder, Sustainable Mountain Alliance, email: ibeutler@sustainablemountainalliance.org
Tim Challen, Director, the Kilimanjaro Initiative, email: tchallen@unfcu.com or Adam Rogers, communications attaché, email: g.adamrogers@gmail.com