When a team of Maltese climbers sets off to climb Kilimanjaro early next year, raising funds for a new kindergarten in Ethiopia, they will in some sense be stepping into uncharted waters – as not one of the team members has climbed the mountain before. 

The 10th edition of the Kilimanjaro Challenge was officially launched earlier today, with 18 members currently training to climb the mountain in January next year.

Every member of the team is a first-timer to the mountain, although they are being guided in their training by former participants with experience of the challenge, lending an air of the unknown to the climb up the world’s tallest freestanding peak.

The team will be leaving for Kilimanjaro in early January, spending eight days on the mountain before travelling to Ethiopia to inaugurate the project.

Before then, they will subject themselves to rigorous training to prepare themselves for the challenges of the mountain, standing at almost 6000 metres.

The group are raising funds for the construction of a kindergarten in Ethiopia, named after Chris Criminale, a former member of the Kilimanjaro Challenge team who passed away last year.

Construction in Jemu, a remote part of the country, is already underway and the total cost is expected to reach €55,000.

The team is also hoping to raise an additional €10,000 to build a flour mill close to the school, allowing the women in the area to continue working and generating progress.

The school, the first building of its sort in the area, will host 150 children and offer daily meals. Roads leading to the school have been completed and works on the building itself have begun. 

In the past 10 years, more than €600,000 have been collected for seven projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, all being run by the Moviment Ġesu fil-Proxxmu.