ABOUT OUR NAME / HOW WE BEGAN

Kibo – (pronounced, “kee-bo”) is the highest point in Africa, the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro rising nearly 20,000 feet above the plains of Tanzania. It has long been the goal of many climbers who go each year and pay thousands of dollars to take the challenge of climbing to Uhuru (freedom) peak. The Kibo Group was founded by a group of such climbers in 1998. Fifteen of us made the five-day climb. Half of us lived in East Africa at the time and collectively we represented over 80 years of living and working in Africa.

Our trip to the highest point in Africa inspired us to help take African communities to their highest points. Since that climb we have been funding various small-scale projects in partnership with East Africans.

Photo by Jon Yoder.

Kibo Group is dedicated to working with communities in East Africa to Help reach their full potential. These partnerships aim to tackle poverty, fight injustice, and create healthier, sustainable societies.

Our Philosophy

Kibo is driven by five principles:

  • We will facilitate creative development ideas in East Africa

  • We will be good stewards of our financial resources

  • We will have very little organizational superstructure

  • We will have strong relationships with our partners

  • We are driven and inspired by our faith but open to working with anyone

Who We Are

Kibo Group is a U.S. based and registered 501(c)(3) organization focusing on creative development initiatives in East Africa. We strive to grow deep relationships with Africans as we partner with them to address the challenges of extreme poverty and take their communities to new heights.

Who We Serve

At present we limit our interaction with countries located in the Lake Victoria basin, focusing on the countries of Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda. Within this region, we will serve any group or person regardless of ethnicity, race, religion or gender.

Our Motivation to Serve

Kibo Group is not a religious organization but we are motivated by our creator God. Our faith in Jesus inspires us to serve the poor and the oppressed unconditionally.

We are interested in using our pursuit of faith and God-given talents to encouragement development. When thinking about development, areas such as economics and social anthropology have long been scrutinized and subdivided into areas of great minutia, yet spiritual issues are often set aside as subjective, divisive and irrelevant to development studies. It is ironic that many of the world’s experts in development are Westerners who think and speak little of faith, yet they are trying to impact a third-world environment where faith in a higher power is one of the few things that nearly everyone agrees on.

 

Follow @KiboGroup on Twitter and Instagram.

Visit kibogroup.org for more information.