[WATCH] Maltese mountaineers raise €65,000 to build Ethiopian school

Mountaineers brave Kilimanjaro to raise €65,000 for Ethiopian kindergarten • Video Ray Attard

An 18-man strong team of intrepid Maltese mountaineers have jetted off to Tanzania where they will attempt to scale Mount Kilimanjaro after successfully raising over €65,000 to construct a kindergarten school in Gambella, Ethiopia.

The kindergarten will be named after Nirvana Azzopardi, a TV presenter who passed away last year after losing a two-year battle against breast cancer.

Seasoned adventurer Keith Marshall, the coordinator of the Kilimanjaro Challenge 8, was a close friend of Azzopardi before she passed away.

“I got to know Nirvana at university over 20 years ago and we remained friends since,” Marshall told MaltaToday. “She was a very nice person with a very philanthropic heart. She used to really to care about people, particularly children. All the Kilimanjaro Challenge members agreed that Nirvana’s legacy should live on through this school. We see it as appropriate that her memory will continue shining through this project.”

The €65,000 was raised over 50 fundraising activities held between July and December. Before the group set off, they presented the final €10,000 cheque to Father George Grima, founder of the Gesu fil-Proxxmu missionary movement. Grima, who for the last 25 years managed hundreds of projects involving the poorest of children in Brazil, Kenya and Ethiopia, approached Marshall eight years ago for assistance in funding a project.

From there, the Kilimanjaro Challenge was born and it has since raised around €500,000 for projects including the construction of a school and convent in Balbula, Ethiopia, a clinic in Sakko, Ethiopia, and a house hosting 100 physically disabled, deaf and blind children in Kenya. Around 100 expedition members have attempted to scale the mountain throughout the challenge’s eight editions and the vast majority of them have succeeded in reaching the mountain’s peak.

“Clashes are inevitable when you’re trying to coordinate a group of people from all walks of life, most of whom I hadn’t known from before we began training,” Marshall said. “However, we always say that the final goal is greater than our personal emptions. Many of the people setting off to Tanzania today will build a friendship that could last for the next 50 years, because this mountain is capable of bonding people.

"On a personal level, two things always come to my mind whenever I’m about to set off on another challenge. The first is that I’m as proud as Punch, and the second is that the challenge I’m setting out on will be my last one. However, people soon start calling me to ask when we’re starting training and things start happening all over again.”   

At 5,895 metres above sea level, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world. The group will start their ascent on 30 December and are expected to reach the peak on 6 January. 
The team is made up of Annaliza Cauchi, Lara Barbuto, Justine Mangion, Nikita Taliana, Alishia Dimech, Stefania Buhagiar, Marthese Zerafa, Samantha Galea, Graziella Sant, Natasha Livori, Austin Cachia, Owen Vassallo, Daniel Farrugia, Brian Cremona, Karl Bartolo, Juan Ellul Pirotta, Chris Criminale and Keith Debattista.