JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Twelve climbers from the United States, Israel, Canada, Ethiopia and South Africa scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money to save 100 African children.
Save A Child's Heart, a non-governmental organization based in Israel, said in a statement that doctors, volunteers and supporters climbed to the summit of Africa's highest peak in an effort to raise $1 million needed to save the lives of 100 African children in urgent need of heart surgery.
It took six days of climbing under difficult conditions before the climbers reached the mountaintop in Tanzania, Emma Hacohen, project coordinator for the climb dubbed "Climb Your Heart Out: Mount Kilimanjaro 2011," said.
"The climbers arrived from different countries, speak different languages and are various ages, but they all share the same goal, to save lives of the children in Africa," she said in a statement released by the organization Monday.
The aim of the organization is to provide life-saving heart surgery and follow-up care for children from Africa, Iraq, the West Bank and Gaza.
