Hello All,

As many of you will know I am setting off to climb
Kilimanjaro. I literally haven't mentioned it all!

I am doing this as I wanted to support our friend Max Gower, who
along with his family set up Born to Fly. This is a charity
in memory for Max’s brother Roger, a helicopter pilot who was shot and killed by an elephant poacher while Roger tracked him from the sky.

The Gower family wanted to create a charity that could deliver tangible change to the communities that it worked with and has
focused on delivering conservation through education. This is not about lecturing children about the evils of poaching (although that is a small part of it) but rather about winning over the hearts and minds of communities where poaching is a problem by giving them something back in return for their co-operation with conservation efforts. By helping them improve the schooling for their children, the communities become more receptive to ideas about how
preserving the local wildlife might also help them. Of course, by ensuring that the children receive a proper education they are also less likely to have to revert to poaching in later life to earn a living. It is intended to be a holistic approach to a very complex problem

The charity has already completed its first project, the rebuilding of a school in Kipsing, Kenya and you can see photos of how that project unfolded here

 https://borntoflycharity.org/kipsing-school-project/ .

The school is thriving and the community is engaging with the conservation efforts of Tusk and the Northern Rangelands Trust. As the school thrives, more children are likely to attend, which will mean that it will likely need further funds for more buildings and teachers.

I am extremely daunted but the prospect of this climb and
have listened to endless mount Kilimanjaro horrors stories so any donations will spur me on up the mountain.

Many thanks