Wednesday August 29th 2001

Sligoman takes on Kilimanjaro climb to help street kids
By Michael Moran

Sligoman Pat Harte gets some practice in this week on Knocknarea in preparation for his climb of Kilimanjaro.

A SLIGOMAN in his mid-fifties is preparing for his third climb of Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world, to raise funds for the street children in the Mukuru slums in Kenya.

Mr. Pat Harte of Cartron will work with the ChildAid charity as part of a project aimed at building a new school to cater for children who otherwise would not receive an education and many of whom are homeless.

A visit to Mukuru and the school project led by Fr. Pat O’Toole, of the Holy Ghost Fathers, and originally from County Mayo, on his first climb of the 19,340 foot mountain in June last year, when he was part of a civilian/army group raising funds for Rwanda street children, prompted Pat to return to Kilimanjaro twelve months later.

Poverty

“I witnessed at first hand the abject poverty of these children. I suffered a lot of altitude sickness on the first occasion and I swore I would never go back. However, the reason I returned was the children. I saw them when I came down and felt I had to do something more for them,” Pat explained as he continued his ‘training’ for his third climb, which will take place in June 2002.

Together with friends and work colleagues at Sligo General Hospital, Pat raised enough money to build two new classrooms in Mukuru. Some of the existing classrooms had no floors and when it rained children were forced to lift their feet from the ground.

“Conditions really were appalling and we just felt we had to help out as best we could,” said Pat.

ChildAid is currently seeking volunteers for two trips next year, the first in March and the second in June. The trips are expected to take up to thirteen days. Volunteers who sign up have a target of £3,000 each and this goes directly to the project. All other expenses are covered.

Potential climbers can contact Pat Harte on 086-8853732 or ChildAid on 021-4222985.

“Climbing Kilimanjaro is a fantastic experience and I would certainly urge anyone to consider it, “ said Pat.

© Sligo Champion
& http://www.unison.ie/