JOHANNESBURG: Trek4Mandela has announced that Professor Thuli Madonsela and her expedition team, led by well-known mountaineer and adventurer, Sibusiso Vilane, has successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro in commemoration of Women’s Day on the 9th August. The expedition included Richard Mabaso, Gerry Elsdon, Pearl Shongwe as well as Sello Hatang, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation for whom it was the 4th expedition summiting the continent’s tallest natural peak.
22 of the 23 climbers made it to the rooftop of Africa, with one summiting Stella Point and the remaining 21 reaching Uhuru Peak. Post the summit, two of the team members fell ill with high altitude related sickness and were evacuated to a hospital. They were observed overnight, and both were released yesterday morning.
In brief discussion with Professor Madonsela, she indicated that the experience was unlike anything she could have expected: “ It was full of thrills, twists and turns - the biggest lessons were by far conquering the mountain within us, and realizing the strength and courage one can muster when focusing on the commitments we made to serving these girls in order for them to be able to conquer their own mountains.”
Professor Madonsela and her team are elated about achieving their goal and the success of the initiative which aims to promote dignity and social justice by benefitting a number of girls under the Imbumba Foundation’s Caring4Girls menstrual hygiene and support programme.
Since inception in 2012, the Trek4Mandela expedition has reached and touched the lives of more than 750,000 adolescent girls, with the goal to reach 2-million girls by 2020.
For media enquiries, please email Nkateko Mabale at nkateko@imbumbafoundation.org / 066 214 2520
Professor Thuli Madonsela successfully summits Rooftop of Africa in commemoration of Women's Day
Professor Thuli Madonsela and her expedition team, led by well-known mountaineer and adventurer, Sibusiso Vilane, has successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro in commemoration of Women’s Day on the 9th August.