Partnership Update: Climb Malawi — The Global Climbing Initiative

The Climbing Initiative recently began a partnership with Climb Malawi, a nonprofit building a vibrant and inclusive community across cultural, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds in southeastern Africa. Through private donations and strategic collaboration, The Climbing Initiative has begun accompanying Climb Malawi on their burgeoning journey.

In January 2019, The Climbing Initiative helped to extend a trip of Climb Malawi’s founder, Tyler Algeo, to come to Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he was able to meet with several gyms in the area and gather donations. During this time, The Climbing Initiative also helped to arrange for Tyler to be featured on the Better Beta Podcast as a means of raising awareness for Climb Malawi and its projects.

Six months later, The Climbing Initiative’s Director of Impact and Innovation, Scott Pagel, visited Malawi in order to collaborate on a number of projects with Tyler and the rest of the Climb Malawi team.

On this trip, Scott brought duffel bags full of donations including shoes, helmets, harnesses, ropes, carabiners, belay devices, drill bits, and bolts. While on the ground, Scott had the privilege of watching Climb Malawi apply for and receive their NGO status, climbing with members of the brand new organization, exploring undeveloped areas of Malawi for potential climbing, and developing new climbs.

So far, the Climb Malawi team has established sport climbing, trad climbing, and bouldering areas in various parts of Malawi. The team, which is jointly led by international and Malawian climbers, has worked with local village chiefs to establish positive relations around land access.

For Scott, the most noteworthy day of the visit involved a trip to a new bouldering area being developed south of the capital in a town called Dedza. “Apart from the climbing—which was new and fun—I learned so much on this particular trip and had extraordinary conversations with Malawian climbers. During the long drive, Tyler explained to me some of the politics involved in developing the climbing areas in Nathenje and Dedza. In an effort to get permission to climb on and develop the land, he, in partnership with other Malawian climbers, gathered the chiefs of the area and explained what they were hoping to do and why. Additionally, I learned that prior to being involved with Climb Malawi, Stanley—and apparently many other Malawian climbers—had never left the city of Lilongwe. Making the two-hour drive to Dedza was a new and rich experience because the cost of transportation is prohibitive for most people living in the area.”

Climb Malawi recently purchased a plot of land and broke ground on their new community gym project. Speaking about their recent celebration where the neighborhood was invited to learn about their project, Tyler said, “Even with this humble start—consisting of little more than a patch of dirt with a small climbing wall and a slack line—it felt like we were moving mountains.” Fundraising for the project is ongoing at the Climb Malawi GoFundMe page.

The Climbing Initiative is thrilled to be partnering with the Climb Malawi team in their pursuits to use climbing as a vehicle for social change. We believe that Climb Malawi offers a valuable example to other emerging climbing areas around the world. We look forward to directly supporting Climb Malawi in their projects in the months to come and building a model for other organizations that aim to harness climbing’s power for positive change.

For more information on Climb Malawi, please visit climbmalawi.com and follow their updates on Instagram at @climb.malawi or Facebook at facebook.com/climb.malawi/.