The Kilimanjaro Challenge team collected €110,000 towards finishing a centre for disabled children in Ethiopia, surpassing their fundraising goal as they set off to climb Africa’s tallest mountain. 

The 12th Kilimanjaro Challenge will see 20 people climbing the highest free-standing mountain in the world. Having been training since March, the team headed to Africa on Monday and will spend eight days on the mountain before continuing on to Ethiopia to inaugurate the project.

The team had originally aimed to raise €90,000 to support the centre for disabled children in Bonga, Ethiopia, a €1.2 million project which will equip children with skills that will help them lead an independent life. 

Started by missionary Fr George Grima, the project was nearly completed before he passed away in September 2017, aged 66.

It includes, among others, a physiotherapy hub, a school, a day care centre and dormitories for 200 disabled children who would otherwise live on the streets. 

Fr Grima, who founded the Jesus in Thy Neighbour missionary movement, had told the Times of Malta it welcomed everyone, especially the unwanted, and gave importance to those who were made to feel unimportant.

He had first met Keith Marshall, founder of the Kilimanjaro Challenge, about 18 years ago. When Mr Marshall joined the priest on a trip to Ethiopia the following year, he pledged to raise funds for a €233,000 school, leading to the birth of the challenge. 

Over the past 11 years, the Kilimanjaro Challenge has raised more than €720,000 for 10 projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, all coordinated by the Missionary Movement Jesus in Thy Neighbour.

The projects have included the construction of a school and convent in the Ethiopian village of Bulbula, a wing for a three-in-one project, a house hosting 100 physically disabled, deaf and blind children in Kenya and a clinic in Sakko. The challenge has also supported four kindergarten schools in Ethiopia, in the Gambella, Dembidolo, Jemu and Wush Wush areas.