Kilimanjaro Education Foundation (KEF) Annual Charity Climb Held For This Fall
New York, NY, August 28th, 2008 /PRNewswire/ — Kilimanjaro Education Foundation (KEF) announces that its second annual charity climb will commence on October 11, 2008. Volunteer climbers participating in the 2008 seven day charity climb of Mount Kilimanjaro seek to raise money through personal and corporate donations. In addition to raising funds, after the climb one of the volunteer climbers, an optometrist, will perform eye examinations and 3 members of the team will help fit those children in need with eyeglasses that have been donated.
"Being able to see the chalkboard or reading a lesson book will have an immediate impact on a student fitted with eyeglasses," said Todd Grossman, President and Founder of KEF. "To date, more than 500 eyeglasses have been donated to help the children in the Mount Kilimanjaro region."
Like last year, the team of KEF volunteer climbers will be lead up the mountain's Machame route by one of Tanzania's most experienced mountaineering guides, Jonas Loiruk, and his team of porters from KIWISA (www.kiwisa.com), a local African wilderness and safari company.
Efforts are underway to raise funds for KEF's use in connection with the Natema Primary School. Similar to the Olturoto situation of last year, the Natema school is in danger of closing due to unsanitary conditions. The school has 971 students and only two outhouses. The problem is so severe that the school can only educate one-half of the students in the morning, and one-half in the afternoon, resulting in decreased classroom and learning time for the students.
KEF continues to seek and raise money and awareness with surprisingly easy to deliver solutions. General donations or sponsorships in the name of the individual KEF volunteer climbers can be made online at KEF's donations page. Visit www.kef4kids.org and learn how you can support them and to help make a difference. Eyeglasses can also be mailed to KEF's office in New York.
This month also marks the first year anniversary of KEF's annual fundraising drive and charity climb, which resulted in raising enough money to build new bathrooms for the entire Olturoto Primary School, which had been in danger of closing due to unsanitary conditions. Not any more, construction is complete and 23 new bathrooms are now fully operational for the 900 plus students. During the past year, KEF also built a roof on two classrooms; purchased four hundred lesson books for students; and thanks to PR Newswire's generous donation, built a modern classroom with electricity and two laptop computers for daily use by students and teachers.
Kilimanjaro Education Foundation (KEF), founded in December of 2006, is incorporated in New York State and organized as a 501(c)(3). KEF strives to improve education and to build school facilities for underprivileged children in Tanzania and other countries bordering Kilimanjaro. KEF's volunteers and directors share in and impart not only the Foundation's passion for children and education, but also in KEF's core values of honesty, integrity, creativity and imagination.
Additional information is available at the foundation's website at http://www.kef4kids.org or by calling 971.520.2019.
