I Send “Don’t Forget Leprosy” Message from the Top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s Highest Peak (1)

Published on March 11, 2024
Displaying a “Don’t Forget Leprosy” banner at 5,685-meter Gilman’s Point, one of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s three summit points, at 5:33 a.m. on February 12, 2024.
Displaying a “Don’t Forget Leprosy” banner at 5,685-meter Gilman’s Point, one of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s three summit points, at 5:33 a.m. on February 12, 2024.

 

On the last leg of my 17-day tour of Europe and Africa, I visited Tanzania from February 6 and successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise a “Don’t Forget Leprosy” banner atop Africa’s highest peak.

This followed the ceremony to launch Global Appeal 2024 to End Stigma and Discrimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, which I issued jointly with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at WHO headquarters in Geneva on January 31. The annual appeal that I initiated in 2006 is issued on or near World Leprosy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of January.

Global Appeal 2024 was the 19th appeal in the series and aimed at sending out the message that it is time to reinvigorate efforts against the disease that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and actively pursue the goal of zero leprosy.

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was a follow-up to my ascent of the 3,776-meter-high Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak, in the summer of 2022, when I also displayed a “Don’t Forget Leprosy” banner at the summit. I did so to give a boost to the “Don’t Forget Leprosy” campaign that I launched in August 2021 to ensure that leprosy and those who are affected by it were not forgotten amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The success of the climb as an awareness-raising activity made me wonder about how I could do it again in a place where attention would matter even more. I decided to aim for Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

With many unreported cases of leprosy believed to exist in Africa, I was determined as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation to display the banner atop the continent’s highest summit to mark a fresh start in the fight against leprosy in Africa and other parts of the world.

Mount Kilimanjaro is similar to Mount Fuji in that it is volcanic and freestanding, meaning that it is not part of a mountain range. Both mountains can be climbed without technical mountaineering skills. But Mount Kilimanjaro is not just the highest mountain in Tanzania; it is the highest in all of Africa. Climbing it would be an opportunity to bring attention to leprosy throughout the entire continent.

I am an 85-year-old senior citizen with a Grade 1 disability－I have a pacemaker implanted in my chest. My family jokingly said this isn’t something suitable for a man of my age to be undertaking. But I was completely serious.

(To be continued)

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