Polepole

How it all began.

Where did our donated hike boots disappear to? Did the right porters actually receive them?

After the trip to Mount Kilimanjaro in 2014, 20 pairs of used hike boots were shipped to Tanzania in response to porters’ request for their donation. The shoes became untraceable after reaching Tanzania and seeking answers to our questions lead to realizing of exploitation problem faced by porters. While tourism on Mount Kilimanjaro generates over 50 million US dollars annually, the profit hardly reaches those doing the actual work on the mountain, rather exposes them in poverty and inequality.


Our Vision
Polepole is highly focused on helping porters by using Platform and FinTech combined solution to access fair wage and invest for their future, while building community to develop awareness for mountain exploitation.

How this works
In this project a community of ethical adventure outfitters and tourist sell/buy transparently packaged Kilimanjaro tourism on our platform. Tourists, empowered by our payment system, pay fair living wages directly to, thus improving income of porters. This process innovation leverages awareness for "Sell Transparently, Buy Responsibly, Travel Ethically".

Contact: Annie Ueyama, info-polepole(at)gmx.de