In 2016, Dean Cardinale, owner of World Wide Trekking and Founder of the Human Outreach Project (HOP), sat down with the Headmaster of Makuyuni Secondary School in Arusha, Tanzania, and asked: “What do you need most?”
“Food,” the Headmaster replied. Because of the Covid epidemic’s impact on tourism, many parents had lost their jobs, and their children were missing school or performing poorly in their schoolwork because they were hungry.
HOP purchased enough food to provide daily hot lunches for all of the school’s 700 children, and hired two cooks to prepare the meals. Parents quickly recognized this new opportunity to feed their children, and school enrollment increased to 1,200. Before long, teachers noted substantial improvement in their students’ test scores.
As enrollment grew, so did HOP’s commitment, with construction of a dining pavilion to shelter students from the hot sun during the dry season and heavy downpours during the rainy season. Each year in June, when Tanzania’s crops go to harvest and prices are at their lowest, HOP buys the next year’s supply of food. This strategy has lowered the cost of feeding each child for a year to $30.
The goal of our upcoming climb is to expand the program to one more school. The estimated cost: $70,000 for infrastructure (kitchen, shade structure, benches) and $30,000 for enough food to feed 1,000 children for a year. You can help by climbing Kilimanjaro with me, or by making a donation to feed some kids and climbing with me virtually.
CLICK HERE if you want to feed some kids and climb virtually,