Follow the HKI Kilimanjaro Team from training to summit from July 12 – 19, 2015. We’ll hike 29 miles on our way to the 19,341’ summit. We hope you’ll click your way to a donation that will inspire us every step of the way.
The team is led by HKI President and CEO Kathy Spahn, taking on her first ever Kilimanjaro trek as part of a yearlong celebration of HKI’s Centennial. Follow her every step of the way, from from preparation to summit, on Facebook.
Dick Sandhaus
Follow Dick’s pre-Kili training program, check out his already-completed 2015 hikes and follow him to the summit of Kilimanjaro on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Helen Keller International
Co-founded in November 1915 by Helen Keller, HKI is dedicated to saving the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. We combat the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition with programs based on evidence and research in vision, health and nutrition.
Helen Keller International [www.hki.org] is thrilled to join the END Fund in The Summit to See the END: Kilimanjaro 2015 to raise awareness and funds to treat and eventually eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Africa.
HKI has been actively involved in treating NTDs such as blinding trachoma since the 1950s. Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, lost much of her sight after contracting this condition as a child in the 1870s.
Today, we are helping tens of millions of people find relief from the suffering of these debilitating scourges. Over the past year, HKI provided 85 million treatments for the five most common NTDs in six African countries: lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (snail fever), soil transmitted helminthes (parasitic worms), and trachoma. We are able to do much of this work through the generous support and leadership of The END Fund and other partners committed to eliminating NTDs.
Little known in the developed world, NTDs can cause blindness, chronic pain, disability and malnutrition. They infect one in six of the world’s people, including half a billion children. Helen Keller International has developed a series of effective programs to combat common NTDs, so that the most vulnerable communities receive the care they deserve.
The Kilimanjaro climb is dedicated to the mothers and children whose lives we hope to improve through our work in treating and eliminating NTDs and we hope you will support us in building a path toward a brighter future.
In the great words of our founder, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”