I “Climbed” Mt. Kilimanjaro with My 1 Year Old

Want to know why I “climbed” Mt. Kilimanjaro with my 1 year old daughter even though she didn’t know the purpose?

She didn’t know why I was walking 2-3 times further than normal.

She didn’t know why I took her walking even when it was raining.

She didn’t know why we didn’t take a day off the whole week.

But one day I will explain it to her one day.

I’ll tell her that in 2020 there were approximately 40 million slaves in the world.

She’ll learn that of those slaves approximately 26.6 million are girls or women, making up 71% of modern day slaves.

I’ll tell her that specifically in the sex-trafficking industry, females make up 80% of victims.

I’ll tell her that girls (under 17) make up 50-60% of those sex-trafficked.

She’ll learn that no country is immune and 43% of trafficking recruiters know the victim.

I’ll tell her that these girls and other enslaved people did not have a voice.

I’ll tell her that God has called us to speak up for those without a voice.

And this is why I took her on this challenge. To raise our voice. To raise awareness for those who are enslaved. To raise money for women and children in Africa who have been trafficked or who are the most vulnerable to become trafficked.

You see, girls are the most at risk group of being trafficked. Because of these facts, I decided to do a virtual challenge with my 1 year old daughter.

I’ve always dreamed of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. So I thought, I can’t travel to Tanzania any time soon, plus I have a 1 year old daughter so that might be difficult anyways. It was then I decided to take up the challenge to climb Kilimanjaro virtually! Meaning, I went the same amount of distance it takes to climb Kili in my own neighborhood! Since I didn’t have the altitude and elevation gain to deal with I decided to do it in 5 days rather than the average 7-9 days. To add an extra challenge I decided to take my daughter and dog with me as well!

There were times when it was difficult to handle both of them and times I thought it would be much easier and quicker to have just gone alone. My daughter can only handle being in her stroller so long and I only have so much patience with dealing with a fussy baby and energetic dog.

But then I remembered WHY I wanted to bring her on the challenge in the first place.

There are many enslaved women with children begging, seeking, and risking their lives to find freedom. I could have a little bit of an extra burden by bringing my daughter when enslaved moms have an exponentially bigger burden to find freedom whilst protecting and providing for their children.

Then I thought how privileged I am to take my daughter on this challenge, where I’m not only challenging myself physically, I’m also raising my voice for women and girls who literally have NO voice.

I thought, “God willing this would never happen, but if, my daughter ever found herself in a trafficked situation I would hope and pray there would be people to rise up on her behalf. To speak on her behalf and to fight for freedom on her behalf.”

So that’s what we’re doing. My one year old daughter and I.

We’re speaking for other women and girls, fellow image bearers of God, who are treated subhuman and cannot find freedom without an advocate or other miracle from God.

Our Challenge, Their Freedom

Want to get involved? E-mail us to learn how forfreedom.afr@om.org