Women climb Mount Kilimanjaro to combat sex trafficking
BURLINGTON, ON—Nearly 50 women will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds and awareness in the fight against human sexual trafficking, including three from southern Ontario.
Regine Huettner, Cheryl Weber and Denise Lodde Roberts will take part in the six-day trek up the 5,900-metre mountain: the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. The trio will join 44 other women—ranging in age from 18 to 73—in the Freedom Climb, along with a support team of 150 guides, climbers, porters and chefs.
Launched by Operation Mobilization (OM), it's hoped each climber will raise $10,000 for 24 projects, from counseling for human trafficking victims in India to funding education for children with HIV-positive parents in Nepal.
For Weber, the decision to join the climb was easy. In her day-to-day work as producer and co-host of CTS TV's "Full Circle" she'd worked with OM India field-leader Joseph d'Souza, who showed her the results of human sex trafficking in India.
"[Combatting] sex trafficking, for me, has been a passion for years," says Weber. "This is the issue of my life.
"My six or seven days in pain are no comparison to what those kids have suffered."
Instead of fundraising, Weber, along with fellow CTS journalist Lodde Roberts, will document the climb for OM. While the final details need to be worked out, the result will eventually be aired on CTS.
Huettner, OM's short-term coordinator, was initially excited about the climb, until she realized how big a project it would be. But, she says, "God brought it back" after a conversation with her boss reminded her how close the project is to her own life and ministry.
"It might have something to do with my personal story," says Huettner, who ministers to women in the sex trade in the Niagara region, some of whom have been trafficked. "I was sexually abused. I know what women go through and am far enough in the healing process to be able to reach out to other women to give them hope because I know there is hope."
The days and months leading up to the January 11, 2012 climb—the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the U.S.—were spent in preparation. Weber spent time trekking up and down the Niagara Escarpment and working in the gym where she focused on cardio training and leg strength.
Huettner, who was with the mountain rescue in her native Germany, has also spent time trekking the escarpment and using a stair stepper.
"That was 15 years ago and I haven't done anything in between. My body isn't ready," says Huettner. "[But] the spiritual and mental preparation is the bigger part of it."
Weber and Huettner are both aware of the dangers of altitude sickness, which causes about 1,000 people to be evacuated off the mountain each year and claims 10 lives.
"In Bavaria, the mountains weren't high enough to get altitude sickness," says Huettner.
And for Weber, the only thing that will take her off the mountain will be altitude sickness.
"I'm determined to stick it out, whatever it takes," she says.
For more information on the event, or to sponsor a climber, visit www.thefreedomclimb.net
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