Kilimanjaro: Climbing to Cure

Amanda Peterka

Britt Larson has been traveling alone since she was 5 years old, and now as she approaches 20, she’s preparing to take her first journey overseas – and it’s going to be no ordinary vacation.

A preveterinary sophomore majoring in zoology with a specialization in international development at MSU, Britt will be heading to Africa over the summer to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb itself will be difficult enough, but she’s taking the climb a step further – she’s using it to raise money to send over medical supplies to Tanzania in an effort she’s termed “Kilimanjaro: Climbing to Cure.”

“I took inspiration from people who run marathons for charity and decided to do the same for my climb,” she said. “I originally signed up for the climb as a personal goal, but I didn’t want to travel to a place like Africa without helping the poor.”

Within the past year Britt began actively seeking sponsors to raise enough money for a 40-foot container of supplies to be sent to Gonja Hospital in Tanzania. The supplies would include X-ray machines and operating tables donated from U.S. hospitals.

“I looked for charities, hospitals and schools on the Internet,” she said. “This one has a dire need for renovation and is one of the most hard-pressed for money. It seemed most worthy of my time and effort.”

In order for the container to be shipped, Britt hopes to raise $14,000 by the time of her climb in June. The money is solely for the cost of shipping the container to the hospital, about 10 dispensaries and one health center, also in Tanzania.

“I’m hoping to get that much, but I don’t necessarily expect to,” Larson said. “But I didn’t feel comfortable setting my goal below the actual cost.”

Larson’s mom, Deb Rufner, also said the amount was going to take some work to attain, but that she has confidence in her daughter.

“It’s a lot of money, and it’ll be a stretch, but I think that she’s going to do everything she can to do it and has a good chance,” Rufner said. “I’ll be very proud and very surprised if she gets it all.”

In order to raise that amount of money, Britt has made a Web site to inform friends and family about her mission and has asked local businesses to sponsor. This past weekend she organized a 5k with the help of SCOUT BANANA to raise over $300, an amount that was lower than she expected but still a success. She’s also selling T-shirts for $12 a piece and holding a fundraiser at bd’s Mongolian Barbeque on April 21.

Larson’s friend and roommate at MSU, Julie Bucklan, said that she also thinks raising that amount of money can be done. Bucklan, a pre-med sophomore, compared Britt to a friend her age who raised over $30,000 for a child in Albania.

“She did that making phone calls,” Bucklan said. “If random people will donate to a kid in Albania, I’m sure they’ll help a local MSU student.”

Bucklan described Larson as an “independent and self-assured woman” who will do whatever it takes to reach her goal.

“She’s passionate about many things, and when she sets her mind to something she accomplishes it,” Bucklan said. “She takes issues to heart and actually takes action instead of just talking.”

Larson’s mom also said she’s always known her daughter to be an independent person who goes after what she wants, and that she sees this goal as just an extension of a save-the-world attitude that Britt has always had. It’s an attitude Britt even brings to her home, making sure her mom turns off the computer and lights when she’s not using them to save energy.

“Anything she’s ever tried to do she goes into with 100 percent enthusiasm and zeal for the whole thing,” Rufner said. “I’ve been awestruck by her from the time she was a little girl.”

To describe Britt’s independence, Rufner related how Britt used to travel alone to New Hampshire to visit her dad and to Arizona to visit her grandparents, beginning at the age of 5.

“When she was 5, I walked with her and put her in her seat on the plane,” said Rufner. “When she was 6, I walked with her, and she said ‘Where are you going?’ and I said, ‘I’m walking you on the plane,’ and she said ‘You don’t have to.’”

Going to Africa, though, is slightly farther away than going across the United States, and Rufner was hesitant about having her daughter travel in Africa by herself. Although Larson will be part of a study abroad group for the first part of her trip – pending admittance into the program – she’ll have 10 days after the program is over before she begins the Kilimanjaro climb with Tusker Trail, a safari group that guides climbers up the mountain.

For this reason, Rufner will be joining her daughter in Africa before the climb begins.

“It’s not just her being alone – she can handle herself,” Rufner said. “I just didn’t like the thought of 20-year-old girl being in Africa by herself.”

Britt said that herself isn’t nervous because for her, going to Africa is a childhood dream fulfilled. She has watched documentaries on African wildlife from a young age and since then has become interested in the landscapes and people as well.

And to her, it’s the people who need the most help.

“Africa has some of the worst poverty problems, even though it’s not the worst region by far,” she said. “But you have to start somewhere. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world.”

Tanzania also faces major problems in the health field, according to Bilal Butt, Britt’s professor in her geography of Africa class at MSU. The country has a poor infrastructure in the health field and faces problems with government coordination, he said.

“Another obstacle is debt release and how much a country owes to external donors,” Butt said. “The country can’t spend as much as it needs to due to debt repayments.”

He said the biggest tragedy to him is when children die of preventable disease because they don’t have access to health supplies or medicine – something that happens often, especially in the more rural areas of Tanzania.

“If you can you do anything to get medical supplies to an area to prevent the death of a preventable disease, there’s nothing better than that,” he said.

Butt is no stranger to Africa. Born in Kenya, he has experience on a few African mountains, including Kilimanjaro, which he climbed at the age of 22, a climb he described as both not “terribly bad, but not terribly easy, either.”

He’s also taken part in a few fundraising efforts, such as the one Britt is attempting. In high school, he used charity walks and bake sales to send money over to Africa.

“What Britt is trying to do is get people over here more into what’s going on in Tanzania even though she’s not yet been there,” he said. “I can’t say for sure if it’s going to be a complete success or failure, but I have absolute faith she’ll do the best job possible.”

Despite the need for help in countries like Tanzania, Larson said that many times fundraising projects are often met with objection.

“A lot of people criticize fundraising efforts for other countries when we have our own problems in the United States, but then I question if they’re doing anything,” she said. “I really don’t understand how people don’t have a save-the-world attitude.”

Britt’s mom, though she’s never done anything like what Britt’s hoping to accomplish, agreed that the United States still should take a hand in helping those less fortunate. Moreover, though, she said she’s just proud of her daughter doing her part to help the world.

“She’s one of the people who wants to see and do everything she possibly can in her lifetime, and this is the beginning of her journey of doing it on her own, not with me or anyone else,” Rufner said. “She’ll continue to do things like this all her life.”

To find out more, go to her Web site.

And check out Britt’s fundraiser at bd’s Mongolian Barbeque, 2080 W. Grand River Avenue on April 21.

Questions? Comments? Contact Amanda Peterka at peterkaa@msu.edu

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