International Mountain Explorers

Kilimanjaro Porter Assistance Project Established in 2003, the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is an initiative of the International Mountain Explorers Connection (IMEC). KPAP is a legally registered Tanzanian not-for-profit organization. KPAP is not a porter membership organization, or a tour operating business, and does not collect any fees from porters or climbing companies.

KPAP’s mission is to improve the working conditions of the porters on Kilimanjaro by:

Lending mountain clothing to porters free of charge
Advocating for fair wages and ethical treatment by all companies climbing Kilimanjaro
Encouraging climbers to select a climbing company with responsible treatment practices towards their crew. Latest Partner List can be found here.
Providing educational opportunities to the mountain crew
KPAP has Clothing Lending offices in:
– Moshi and Arusha, Tanzania
– Outside of the Machame, Marangu and Rongai gates of Mt Kilimanjaro National Park

KPAP’s Impact

Since 2003, KPAP’s work has had a tremendous impact for porters climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. These include:

Porters on over 30,000 climbs have borrowed KPAP’s mountain climbing gear free-of-charge
Over 6,000 porters climbing with Partner for Responsible Travel companies are ensured fair and ethical treatmentevery year
More than 16,000 mountain crew have participated with KPAP’s free educational and training classes in English, HIV/AIDS Awareness and Money Management
Through funding provided by the Tanzanian Foundation for Civil Society, KPAP has instructed 5,225 porters in classes on Porter Rights
115 mountain crew have received Leave No Trace certification in environmental care of Mount Kilimanjaro
More than 1,320 mountain crew have been certified in First Aid and 69 porters and guides have been trained as First Aid Instructors and have gone on to conduct First Aid Certification courses for additional porters and mountain crew.
Through the Partner for Responsible Travel Program:

In 2014 the Kilimanjaro National Park mandated a minimum daily wage for porters of 15,000 Tanzanian shillings, which amounts to approximately US $7.50. Partner companies meet or exceed this standard 100% of the time compared with non-Partners doing so only 51.6% of the time.
Porters working with Partner companies received a total compensation of US $15 per day from salary and tip versus US $12.27 for non-Partner porters.
Partner porters averaged 2.9 meals per day compared with 2.0 meals for porters climbing with a non-Partner company.
92% of porters climbing with Partner companies say the amount of food they received was adequate compared with just 43% of porters working for non-Partner companies.
For those climbing the camping routes on Kilimanjaro, 95% of Partner porters said their tents were of good quality compared with 70% among the porters of non-Partner companies.
KPAP Website: http://www.kiliporters.org/