Mount Kilimanjaro rises 5895 metres above the Tanzanian plains - and two intrepid Armidale teachers will brave its snow-capped summit to raise money for some of Africa's poorest children.
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Andréa Jaggi and Georgie MacDiarmid, from UNE Discovery, will climb to the top of the world's tallest freestanding mountain in early July.
They hope to raise $10,000 for the School for Life Foundation.
Founded by two young Australians, its three schools teach more than a thousand students in poverty-stricken Uganda - where almost half the population are under 14, nearly 80 per cent are illiterate, and only a third finish primary school.
"By supporting the foundation," Andréa said, "we can help them provide healthcare, fresh water and food, and an education right through to the tertiary level, so the communities can put back into the schools as teachers."
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The Foundation provides a hand-up rather than a hand-out, Andréa explained.
"Instead of providing communities with enormous amounts of money that can often be caught up in corruption, they find it better to help build it up from a base level - building schools, and giving people an education.
Andréa and Georgie set out for Tanzania on July 6, and spend eight days scaling the peak.
The half-Swiss Andréa will need her Alpine heritage. She's definitely not a mountaineer, she said, laughing, but she and Georgie love climbing.
"It's going to be intense, but we are training as much as we can, to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible!" Andréa said.
She trains at the gym every second day, and spends her weekends hiking in the hilly national parks.
Exciting though the climb will be, Andréa most looks forward to four days meeting the Ugandan schoolchildren.
"It's going to be confronting, but it will be good to see them," she said.
As teachers, she and Georgie travel to schools around northern NSW, from small country schools to big public ones.
"It doesn't compare to what the students face in Uganda," she said. "Poverty is so prominent over there. Education is one of the most powerful tools that people can use to change the world. The war on poverty is so important to fight."
Andréa and Georgie have raised $9500 as of Monday; a charity day at the Armidale Golf Club, with a raffle and silent auction, raised $5000.
All donations are warmly welcomed at https://summitforschoolforlife2019.raisely.com/georgieandandrea.
"Although we have our struggles here with the drought, we can't forget our neighbours," Andréa said.
The Foundation holds the Kilimanjaro trek annually, but runs other fundraising activities throughout the year, including a 10-year anniversary black tie ball in Sydney this month, and hikes up Mount Kosciuszko. For more information, visit https://www.schoolforlife.org.au/.