Kenya: Local Empowerment for Paragliding Pilots

Mawingu Camp Kenya Ltd (MCK) was created by 3 ambitious Kenyans and a German advanced paragliding pilot (me) to facilitate a tandem passenger paragliding outdoor experience near the capital Nairobi, to engage the ever growing demand of outdoor experiences by young and older Kenyans mostly from the capital.

MCK was established in September 2021 and the Tandem paragliding service has been a success taking clients on exciting flights of 15-20min from three paragliding takeoff spots around Nairobi. The operations run 7 days a week and we are averaging around 40-50 tandem flights each month with many happy clients.

As Kenya is still at the beginning of developing the sport of paragliding, there are no full time local pilots to do the job, so we have been inviting foreign licensed pilots from countries where tandem paragliding is an established occupation. We have hosted Nepalese and Indian pilots, which have brought so much colour and experience to our operations. These fun pilots however come with their own flying gear, stay for a month, fly our clients and leave again.

This has brought us the idea of empowering local pilots to do the job and providing them with training and new gear.

Since June 2021 the visiting foreign tandem pilots have been training a local paragliding pilot named Kibet and we invested in new gear for him. He is now licensed by the PAK (Paragliding Association of Kenya) and has been engaged in flying our clients for the last weeks.

As we need at least two local pilots, another pilot named Kiplagat is currently being trained but is lacking new tandem paragliding equipment. T0 ensure utmost safety and fun for our clients both Kiplagat and Kibet need to travel to India for additional paragliding training for a week or so. The further travel/ training cost for both pilots and one set of tandem paragliding equipment comes at a cost of 6000 USD.

The team of MCK thanks you for any contribution towards this cause. Your contribution will elevate Kibet and Kiplagat and empower them with a permanent occupation, sustainable skillset and job to be proud of. We will keep you in the loop with pictures and videos of their journey of empowerment.

In gratitude we offer a free tandem flight to anybody who contributes more than 300 USD towards this cause.

God Bless,

Your MCK TEAM.

For more information on Paragliding in Kenya goto:

Our Webpage:

www.mawingucampkenya.com

Facebook Page: Cloudbase Kenya

Instagram: #mawingucampke