Mountain porters on Kilimanjaro are an essential part of every trek.
Your trek consists of a core group of porters with specialized jobs to ensure that your camp experience is as comfortable and relaxing as possible, and that your gear is transported safely.
We take care of our porters like no other company does, by providing each porter with a rain poncho + a cold-weather (closed-cell foam) sleeping pad. We make sure that they all have adequate mountain footwear, sunglasses, a sleeping bag and a warm hat, gloves and jacket.
Here's more of what we do for our hard-working porters:
- We are the only company in Tanzania to provide heavy-duty waterproof ponchos and cold-weather sleeping mats for each of our porters.
- We provide each porter with tented sleeping accommodations.
- We pay the highest porter salaries on Kilimanjaro and we guarantee these salaries, even if a porter does not complete the trek due to sickness or injury.
- We provide a complete first-aid kit and treat our porters as we would our guests when they are sick or injured on the mountain.
- We provide worker's compensation insurance for our porters.
- We respect the weight limits for porters as instructed by Kilimanjaro National Park.
- We provide annual professional first-aid training for our porters, including all costs (transport, accommodation, and meals) during the course.
In addition, we support the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP), a Tanzanian non-profit organization based at the foot of the mountain.
KPAP is a branch of the International Mountain Explorer's Connection, and is committed to improving the working conditions of porters.
We assist the KPAP with the transport of donated clothing and gear, and also by adhering to strict principles for porter ethics.
© 2002-2008 by Thomson Safaris, a Division of Wineland-Thomson Adventures, Inc.
