The Climb High Foundation is a nonprofit organization (San Francisco, CA) that is dedicated to teaching women in developing nations the skills that will enable them to benefit from climbing and trekking-related tourism.

Many of the world’s most alluring mountains are located in very poor nations (Uganda, Nepal, Tanzania, India, etc.) where women often are considered subordinate to men and lack equal opportunities for education, economic opportunity, medical care and other services. The nonprofit team focuses their efforts in these areas.

Alison Levine, who served as the team captain for the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, is a founder of the Climb High Foundation.

The programs enable women to work as trekking guides and porters in local mountains and national parks so they can make sustainable, improvements to their quality of life. The goal is not only to provide financial independence for women, but also to provide a catalyst for social change in their countries.

Specifically, Climb High Foundation provides clothing, equipment and training to local women and also meets with local leaders to pave the way for these women to improve their standard of living.

The Climb High Foundation’s Uganda Initiative helped 7 pioneering Ugandan women in the Rwenzori Mountains become mountain guides and porters for the first time. Negotiations were conducted with local village officials to overcome the cultural and economic restrictions that had previously kept women from earning wages as guides and porters.

Some of the obstacles were cultural beliefs that the gods would be angry if women climbed up into the mountains, men objecting to women taking their jobs, and a culture that says women were not to have access to capital.

Since women did most of the physical labor around the community, the Climb High Foundation was confident these women would be as capable as men of handling the mountain climbs. They were correct.

The 7 women initially trained in 2005 have gone on to become very capable guides and porters, and additional women are now eagerly being trained on later visits to Uganda.

In addition, the Climb High Foundation helped build several new schools in Nepal and Uganda that now educate more than 2,000 students. The school in Uganda is for the speech and hearing-impaired AIDS orphans. It provides education and room and board for children that are traditionally not accepted into other orphanages.

More information on donating, participating or learning about their programs can be found on their website.