Page 45 - COP 2016-2017

Photo: PDAid Foundation's first two participants/mentees Benta Mbeneka & John Senteu are awarded their certificates for participation in the PDAid Foundation
Support and Mentoring Program in Nairobi, Kenya.

We continue to support the successful initiative PDAid An important meeting
Foundation, and we are pleased to witness the continued success
of the support program. Kenyan mentees, John and Benta, were During the 2014 climb, John met Danish CEO, Dennis Nielsen,
the first participants to enroll in the “PDAid Foundation journey”. and his wife Pia Nielsen. After digesting his rather stirring life
Since their participation at the launch event in 2015, they have story, Dennis and Pia knew they had to do something to help.
developed further than they would have ever imagined possible. Hugely inspired by John and Benta’s story, they established the
Today, they know they will never return to the living conditions PDAid Foundation on their return to Denmark. In just one year,
they left behind two years ago. the PDAid Foundation launch event took place in Nairobi, with
John and Benta announced as the first two participants.
The mentees of the PDAid Foundation, John and Benta, began
their journey when Timothy Challen, the founder of a Kenyan Benta describes how her “…beautiful journey with the PDAid
NGO Kilimanjaro Initiative (KI), encouraged them both to join a Foundation began”.
youth group on a climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
“I was in a youth group called Youth without Walls. Through this
Every year, KI organizes a climb to Africa’s highest summit as group, which is part of KI’s many groups, I got to meet Timothy
a way to raise awareness on social issues that affect young Challen who encouraged me to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro
women and men in underserved communities in East Africa and in 2015 after I had shared my life story with him and all the
throughout the world. Other participants include youth leaders, challenges I faced growing up and as a young woman living in the
members of civil society, UN officials, Public Sector Reps and slums – and that’s where it all began.”
company CEOs.

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