WHILE many of us plan to spend Cup Match doing as little as possible, a handful of brave Bermudians will be doing something a little more strenuous than watching cricket, stretching for a cold beer or throwing dice on the Crown and Anchor tables.

Seven local adventurers and a Canadian mountaineer set off this morning to conquer Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro ¿ all in an effort to raise much-needed funds for an orphanage that lies at the base of the challenging peak.

Michael and Debbie Jones, their daughters Meghan and Sophie and son Richard, along with friends Irene Conlan, Anna Fulton and Canadian Andrew Morrison begin their week-long climb today to reach the peak, which is just over 19,000 feet.

Flaria Faraji founded the Tuleeni orphanage two years ago. Both her brothers died of Aids-related illnesses and left their six children in her care. With her own brood of six, "Mama Faraji" continued taking in orphans and today has 29. Many of them had been abandoned or orphaned because of Aids and were living on the streets.

Ironically, Mama Faraji was orphaned and left school at a young age to care for her three younger siblings.

As for the Bermuda connection, the Jones family went to Kenya and Tanzania on holiday numerous times when their daughter Meghan was a teenager.

The youngster became so enthralled by the country, its culture and its people that she returned to Tanzania when she graduated and volunteered as an English teacher at a school in Rau. During her four-month stint in Tanzania she met fellow teacher Mama Faraji, who told Meghan she wanted to start an orphanage.

"She told me she had 12 children and I remember thinking, 'That's a lot of children', but she told me that six were adopted and she had filled her quota in her own home, but wanted to take in more orphans from the village," she told the Mid-Ocean News in a recent interview.

Meghan added that Mama Faraji had a larger property in mind, but did not have the money to make the orphanage a reality.

On her return to Bermuda, Meghan worked tirelessly to raise money to open what was to be called Tuleeni orphanage, including a fundraiser at Saltus Junior School in 2006.

"Saltus did a grub day fundraiser and bake sale to benefit the school in Rau. But they raised so much money that I asked the principal if she would consider splitting the money between the school and the orphanage," she recalled.

"It seemed a little bit crazy to spend what was an absolute fortune to this village in one place when they had all these orphans who didn't have anything to eat or anywhere to live."

Saltus agreed and the money was spent on fitting out the new orphanage, including buying bunk beds and everything Mama Faraji needed to get it started. Before long she had 29 children living at Tuleeni.

Last year Meghan organised a fundraiser at Holy Trinity Church in Hamilton Parish which raised enough money to buy Tuleeni 100 chickens, four goats and a cow.

"Now they have a constant supply of milk and eggs," Meghan said, adding that ultimate goal is to make the orphanage self-sustainable.

"They also have a lot of left over eggs which they can sell and this provides them with a little bit of income to buy food for the animals."

Some of the money was also used to build a farm so that the children and staff could plant their own crops, but before then they had to build a security wall around the property.

Meghan said the security wall was a necessity because someone had broken into the property and stolen all the children's shoes.

"I guess when people are desperate they will even steal from an orphanage," she said. The few chickens the orphanage had at that stage were also stolen.

As for this latest fundraiser, Meghan hopes by climbing Kilimanjaro her family and friends will raise enough money to enable Mama Faraji to buy a bigger property, as Tuleeni is currently being rented and space is limited to under 30 children. Also, because of the increase in Aids/HIV deaths among adults, more and more children are being orphaned and find themselves living on the streets ¿ some as young as three.

Meanwhile, Mama Faraji, her husband and a few other local women act as caretakers of Tuleeni. The older children take on many responsibilities in order to keep the orphanage functional ¿ this includes caring for the animals and crops.

Meghan felt there was an incredible sense of family and community:

"Despite their troubled backgrounds and their hardships, the children of Tuleeni are some of the happiest children one has ever had the pleasure to meet. Their joy is nothing short of humbling and they are eager to learn and make the most of what they have."

She said Tuleeni's mission is "to work toward empowering orphans and street children by providing education and other needs in order to return hope to the children's lives". While it was hard to translate into English what Tuleeni means, Meghan said: "It basically means 'care for us'."

She went on: "I've visited a number of orphanages across Tanzania and many of them are more like institutions.

"What I love about Tuleeni is that it's a home and the children get a lot of love and care from Mama Faraji. They also get a good education to help them break the cycle of poverty and allow them to change their lives for the better."

Meghan's mother Debbie is better known for her work at the Diabetic Centre at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, but told the Mid-Ocean News that she felt by adding "mountain climber" to her repertoire, she would be able to help Meghan raise awareness about the orphanage in the hope that people would support them by providing sponsorship.

She said they hoped they were fit enough because they were due to arrive in Tanzania the same day the climb started.

"All of us have been training hard over the past months to get into shape for the big event and would very much appreciate your sponsorship!"

It's estimated to take the group seven days and eight nights to reach the summit.

"We have been training, but you never know if you've trained enough. It's going to be gruelling and it's apparently freezing cold. It's 19,000 feet."

Mrs. Jones added. "But we chose Kilimanjaro because it towers over the orphanage."

While her parents might be apprehensive about the climb, Meghan is anything but, saying: "I used to see the mountain every day from the school and the orphanage in Rau. It's beautiful to look at and now I'm going to be climbing it. I can't wait."

The first recorded ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro by Europeans was in 1889 by Hans Meyer, Ludwig Purtscheller and their local guide, Yohanas Kinyala Lauwo.

To learn more about the Tuleeni orphanage and the Kilimanjaro charity climb, visit www.tuleeni.org. If you would like to donate towards the Tuleeni Charitable Trust, you can make a deposit to one of the following Bank of Bermuda HSBC accounts: Account 010-806891-001 for donations in Bermuda dollars, 010-806891-501 for US dollar donations, and 010-806891-511 for donations in sterling.