katikaa In short this is my company’s challenge to raise money for Unicef UK through teams of employees climbing to Kilimanjaro. There are three different groups; one, two and three so far, and I am part of group three going up February 2020. Teams one and two have already been there which is great advice to others and story sharing!
Why Unicef
The reason why Autovista Group (where I work) chose Unicef is because we employees ourselves were asked of our opinion on what we would like to see the company support. We mentioned that supporting children, education and reducing the impact of climate change are important causes for us, hence Unicef was chosen because they work with all these causes.
Unicef has on their website this one simple sentence which summarizes their target and quite well what I want to achieve by raising money for them also.
“For every child the chance to grow up healthy, happy and safe”
I have four children myself and they are lucky to live in a house, go to school and get food every day. They don’t always remember to appreciate it and complain about food or homework. I try to remind them that not everyone has the chance to study and not everyone can sleep in a comfy bed with only big brother in the same room. Some children might have to sleep in a room with many more than just big bro, they may not have warm meal every day and they will not be able to go to school at all, but are forced to work every day.
I know they are children and it takes time to understand, appreciate and not take all of this for granted. We all complain sometimes although all is well, me being no exception. My children are though surprisingly aware of the climate issues and strong advocates for nature and preserving it, so very proud of them for this.
I want every child to have a happy, content and trusting smile when they go to bed at night knowing all is well and sleep without fear. I want every child to be able to give a hug to their parents and go to the park with their grandparents. They are the future, we must teach them well and give everyone an opportunity to thrive and flourish. That is why this cause is so important to me because without children we have no future.
I also love nature in all it’s fierceness and beauty, Australian outback and Finnish Lapland. I want to make sure we are not doing anything to make things worse, but rather hope that we have now finally taken the turn for better in the fight against the climate change. The choices we make now have longstanding impact so let’s hope we make the right ones! I also believe that everyone’s contribution counts, small streams make a big river and big rivers flow to the sea.
This challenge is my small bit to support these causes and you can help me achieve my goal by sponsoring me through my Just Giving page or clicking the “Sponsor me” button below.
Both lead to the same page where you can sponsor me with any amount you choose. Every euro counts so thank you for your support <3 I also want to thank everyone who has already sponsored me at Autovista and my friends!
Why I chose to apply
After being between pregnancies, nursing and school runs for many years it is finally a bit more quiet in the house. I can hear myself think better and realized I had a selfish thought of wanting to do something for me.
I want to challenge myself somehow and sports + nature have always been the way to reduce stress for me in addition to music. I love wandering in the nature, hiking and trail running. My runs though often are not very results-oriented as I stop admiring animals, plants and scenery taking pictures forgetting I was running to try and beat my last time.
So now as the little one is big enough (preschool) I thought why not? I actually already applied first time two years ago, but cancelled it realizing I cannot commit to fundraising or training yet, as the kids were still younger and there was a lot of changes happening in our lives.
Now when it was announced that applications for team three were open I thought now is my time. I will apply, maybe I could actually do this! Luckily I was chosen and here I am now writing this blog post and I’m so excited writing this. I am excited to be a part of this, I am excited at what our team can achieve and I am excited that I can do something good while doing all this.
Individual and team goal
We all have individual goals and we also have a team goal. My goal is to raise 2000 EUR and our team goal is to raise 21 000 £. There is 12 of us on this journey and intention is to get to the top together and of course raise at least the goal amount but hopefully even more!
Three Peak Challenge
Before we head out to Africa and mount Kilimanjaro we will have three peak challenge in North West England lake district to test climb three different peaks Helvellyn, Skiddaw and CatBells. This is both to get to know each other and to try out physically what it is like to keep going day after day.
If we survive this and the doctor still thinks it’s ok to continue to Kilimanjaro then we will head out for the real challenge in February 2020 which is 5800 meters high and in Africa!
More information
… about my preparation for both of the climbs here on my blog katikaa.blog
…about my progress, training and high lights during the journey + videos posted to my Twitter account.
…about Autovista Kilimanjaro Challenge and why we are doing this + about the other teams before us you can find on the Autovista Kilimanjaro Challenge website.
Last but least, please help me achieve my target. It would be great to hit the midpoint mark!
