For these charities, I will go to the mountain top.

Hello.

I am Kathleen Ndongmo, and I am going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro! More importantly, though, I hope you will help me do it!

‘That’s all well and good’, you may be thinking, ‘but why are you telling me?’

I’m telling you because I need your help to raise more than $6000 for three very worthy charities:

• Hearts of Gold Children’s Hospice (Lagos, Nigeria), which supports physically and mentally abandoned children suffering from life- threatening and life-limiting medical conditions
• St. Arniel Orphanage (Douala, Cameroon) which cares for more than 50 orphaned children with special needs
• REPCAM (Relais Enfants-Parents du Cameroun — Yaounde, Cameroon) a non-profit organisation led by an amazing woman that provides much-needed support to detained women and improve the relations between mothers and their children.

I need your help to raise more than $6000 (₦ 1,250,000), (FCFA 3,450,000) for these three very worthy charities. In order to achieve these goals, I have set up a crowd-funding program here. As you can see, I need your support to make this wonderful event happen and to get these children the resources they so direly need.

Donate here: http://kilimanjaro.truppr.com/profile?id=10#kat

But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I work as the Lead Consultant (and Founder) of The Words Shop. We are a management strategy, social media, copy-writing and communications boutique for African SMEs. We work directly with helping these small business owners and managers reinvent themselves as the businesses that are leading Africa into the 21st century by finding the social and business gaps they struggle with and make it possible for them to bridge these gaps using their own creativity and expertise, but in reliable, effective ways that help them engage with both their customers and their community.

Before I founded The Words Shop, I spent 12 years working in both Africa and several countries in Europe doing CRM, Content Marketing, Strategy, Project Management, Business Process Improvement and marketing and digital strategy with organisations such as Bank PHB, (now Keystone Bank), GTBank, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Access Bank, First Bank, NNPC Nigeria and Forbes Africa, just to name a few.

I have won awards for my various endeavors, and I once appeared on the African version of “The Apprentice” in 2008. This appearance aired all over Africa, and won me two fairly high profile project manager opportunities as well.

Most of all, I am deeply passionate about social change, and I certainly won’t stop working for a better world once I have made it to Kilimanjaro’s fabled summit. This is truly just one step in the journey of a lifetime, but it should be a very glorious one especially as children make my heart sing. My past humanitarian work includes time working as a Youth Mentor in Cameroon with Defense for Children International. I spoke in my capacity as a delegate for the Organization of African Unity (now known as the African Union) at their Yaoundé summit when I was just 16 (and had the honor to meet the late great Madiba, Nelson Mandela), and later served for two years as the Children’s Parliament’s first female Secretary General. I also worked as a Program Officer with Computer Aid International to distribute refurbished IT equipment throughout Central Africa. I have also led advocacy and community change efforts as one of the core members of Generational Voices (GenVoices) Nigeria — a growing global movement of Nigerians aged 18 to 40 but inclusive of a dynamic group of older mentors and contributors, conceived as a means to convert online and offline efforts into practical national change.

I tell you this so that you don’t think me a foolish dreamer or an impractical idealist. I am creative, but I am an established businesswoman with a history of making real, positive change in the world. I truly believe that the money we raise for these charities will do a tremendous amount of good, and that the attention they gain on the world stage will do much, much more for the lives and futures of these children.

The charities I am working with are:

· Hearts of Gold childrens Hospice, which supports abandoned or orphaned children who suffer from crippling or life threatening disorders. You can learn more about Hearts of Gold and the amazing work they do at their website and their Facebook page.

· REPCAM (Relais Enfants-Parents du Cameroun), a non-profit organisation that provides much-needed support to detained women and improve the relations between mothers and their children. REPCAM was founded 2006 by Claire Mimboe Ndi Samba, who has devoted her life to improving the lives of children born to incarcerated women. The charity is perhaps best known as being associated with this tragic story. You can learn more about REPCAM at their blog (In French).

· St. Arniel Orphanage Douala, which cares for more than 50 orphaned children with special needs. Unfortunately, St. Arniel has very little recognition outside of Cameroon, and practically no web presence. This charity climb represents an amazing opportunity for the orphanage to become known, and to expand its scope of work dramatically.

Please consider donating as much or as little as you can to this cause. It will change the lives of hundreds of needy children and help these organisations achieve the recognition and support they deserve.

Donate here: http://kilimanjaro.truppr.com/profile?id=10#kat

I am truly committed to this charity climb.

I have been working towards this event for some time, and have already overcome several personal challenges to make sure that I am physically as well as psychologically up to the challenge. My preparations began in 2013. Since then I have lost 30kgs (66lbs.). Just look! In furtherance to my healthy living challenges, I want to conquer this mountain.

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How does charity crowd funding work?

Just like normal crowd funding, this project relies on people like you to see the value of what I’m trying to achieve and commit to contributing some money to the cause. If my project meets its goal, I will be able to make this amazing journey to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, and all of the proceeds will go to my chosen charities, Hearts of Gold, REPCAM and St. Arniel Orphanage. If the funding is not successful, I will not make the climb, and no money will be taken from any of you. That would truly be a sad event, but at least you know that I’ll follow through if you do!

Of course, if that does happen I ask you to consider donating the money you had pledged to these groups directly, or to other, equally needy organizations near you.

Donate here: http://kilimanjaro.truppr.com/profile?id=10#kat

Please consider sharing this note with someone you know who may want to donate.

Other ways to help: share on your social media pages, your blog, forward, share, repost, retweet… make this as visible as you can…. that too is paying it forward.
Thank you!