Meet Our Guides
Female Kilimanjaro & Safari Guides
When a woman becomes a guide, her earning potential increases by almost 20%. Many of Tanzania’s female guides are the sole income earner for their family and children. They inspire girls and other women to believe that there are opportunities for them in guiding. Women working as guides break the glass ceiling of the belief that only men should be mountain guides.
Reach out to Glory Thobias at thobiasglory@icloud.com to organize a female guided safari or Kilimanjaro climb.
Click play below to hear directly from Glory about the journey to becoming a female guide, and from guides Asifiwe and Happiness about how being a female guide has changed their life.
Certified Female Guides
The Tanzania Women Guides Foundations aims to achieve a 50 / 50 gender split in the industry, with a special focus on empowering women into mountaineering and guiding. We are pleased to introduce you to Tanzania’s female guides.
Celina Dodah
Celina is from Karate, and supports a lot of porters and future guides from her village. She primarily works with the African Walking Company, and helps Glory to qualify the women who attend guiding school.
Pudensiana Masawe
Before she become a porter, Pudensiana used to sell food at the Lemosho entrance gate. She then began work as a porter before becoming a guide. She works with the African Walking Travel company to lead large groups and expeditions.
Veronica Mushi
Veronica works with solo adventures, and continues to improve her communications skills.
She is incredibly energetic, a mother of two, and raising her children on her own, while also guiding.
Happiness Kipingu
Since graduating as a guide, she has a promising career ahead of her. She is very smart and has a very broad knowledge of flora and Fauna. Works with Adventure Women Africa and African Walking Travel Company.
Alicia Sanka
Alicia works with Nature Discovery, and while she stopped guiding due to Covid, she is looking forward to resuming her role soon.
Devotha Temu
Currently work with Sanjan as resident guide in the bush, Devotha was previously guiding safaris and working Solo Adventures and Ian Tailor Trekking. She is qualified for guiding on both safari and the mountain.
Asifiwe Makere
Asifiwe is a huge help to Glory in organising the training of women in local tours. She works with Adventure Women Africa and Intrepid Tours. She is one of the few women who does cycling in and around Kilimanjaro.
Lulu Augustino
Lulu is married with a beautiful baby, but manages to go back to the Mountain without her husband being harsh about it. Her husband is a guide too, working with Top Climbers and African Zoom.
Paskalina Mayo
Paskalina was a porter for 6 years, and now works with African Walking Company. She also works with Exodus guests who hire women guides a lot.
Ruth Embedodo
Born and raised In Arusha National park, Ruth guides a lot here. She takes care of her mother and has been able to provide for her family since moving up from a porter to a a guide.
Rehema Olotu
Rehema is a hard worker who we have recently congratulated on her first baby. She looks forward to coming back to work after her baby has matured enough.
Ruth Jacob
Ruth is a Masai girl who has managed to be guide and support her children without her husband’s help. She mainly guides for the African Walking Travel Company.
Jackline Dominick Shuma
Jackline spends most of her time on the mountain with her husband who is a chef. Having teenagers, guiding has helped her a lot in sending them to a good college and supporting her youngest who is five. She works with World Wide Trekking.
Angela Nemes
Angela was born and raised in Rombo, 10 minutes drive from Rongai route. Her father is a porter, and she promised him that she would become a guide so he could retire. We congratulate her on having passed her exams, and having become a guide with The African Walking Company.
Anitha Albert Mbelwa
Born and raised in Tabora the region located in central tanzania, Anitha started to work as a porter but could not save enough to pay for her school fee. She was awarded a scholarship for mountain guide training so she can achieve her dream of becoming a guide.
Veronica Temu
Veronica is doing well in her guiding. She worked for Intrepid for a few seasons, and is now a trip Leader in Rambling Adventure. She supports her twin children through University with her salary as a guide. When she is not on the mountain she works in her store.
Shomari Mwanga
Shomari was raised at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro, and now works with Ahsante Tours as a guide. She is a symbol in her village and now people see her having a good life. She inspires many young women and girls who now want to be guides as they see her break the barrier.
Jackline Mollel
Born and raised in Arusha, Jackline moved to Moshi looking for greener pastures. She works with Ahsante Tours in Moshi, the same company she use to work as a porter. She is still guiding with both Ahsante Tours and Gladys Adventures.
Theresia Joseph Bakalita
Born 1996 and raised in Arusha, now live at the foot of Mt Meru. Theresia works hard in carrying luggage so that her kids can have a better future. She currently works with Kilimanjaro Expert, Adventure Women Africa and Kibo Expedition.
Sheve Solomon Lekundayo
Sheve started to work as a porter to support her child as a single mother. She looks forward to improving her language and general understanding in guiding. She has worked as a porter for five years.
Grace Samweli Ntandu
Grace used to work as security guard in a hotel in Arusha, before becoming a Kilimanjaro porter. She then qualified to attend in house training, and works with Adventure Women Africa. She likes guiding and I hopes this will change her life.
Debora Salim
Debora is a mother of two who raises her babies on her own. She has worked as a porter for two years but it is very hard and so demanding. Seeing other women guide made her pursue this path too.
Anna John
Anna was porter for 10 years off and on, and worked hard to become a guide. She studied while being a single mother with four children, and now works with African Walking Company.
Costansia Leon
Married to a chef, Costansia understands the fruits of being there. She is a mother of 5 and works as a porter, while also processing firewoods to charcoal. She now wants to do more so she can support her kids to have good future.
Renata Tumaini
Renata worked as a dish washer for Intrepid, but has now qualified to be a guide. She has finished her secondary school and wants to dedicate her life to making it easier for girls to work in senior jobs in tourism.
Clementine Ernest
Clementine works as a porter at Meru Women Group operating in Mt Meru. She lives close to Mt Meru, and is a mother of two.
2023 TRAINING… Newest Guides
Through our Mountain Guide Training Project, we congratulate the following guides from the Singida Region.
Khadija Athuman
Khadija is from a farming family in Singida South Maghonda. Women in her community are married at an early age, but her father encouraged her to go to school. She was one of only 5 girls in her class of 31 boys. She wants to show her community what is possible for women.
Faraja Peter
Faraja has a graduate degree in Education, and had some of the top performing exam results of women in her region to recieve a college scholarship. She climbed Kilimanjaro in 2023, and is dedicated to working hard to establish her financial independence.
Mary Baltazar
Mary graduated secondary school in 2021, and started climbing Kilimanjaro as a porter in the Machame route, which is the second Hardest route on the mountain. Her financial independence means that she will be able to support her new baby as a single mother.
Mektilda Mgonto
Mektilda grew up in Singida east, the fourth of 9 children. She graduated secondary school, and engaged in agriculture, though was not able to pursue college with so many younger siblings for her parents to support through school. She hopes to be independent so she can support her family and provide a better future for her siblings.
Filomena Peter
Filomena didn’t get a chance to go in Secondary school, staying at home after primary school to help her parents with the family farm. Now working on Kilimanjaro she is earning her own salary for the first time in her life. Never did she think with her education that she would find a job, but this opportunity has made her so happy, as she know nows she can change her life, and the lives of her family.
Jamila Jumanne
Jamila was born 2004 in Singida east, and graduates Secondary school in 2022. The first born in a family of 7, her father works hard, but it is difficult when poor rain causes poor harvests. It has been difficult for her to find the financial means to attend college, so she is working hard to change her future.
Theresia John
Born and raised in Singida south, after Secondary school it was difficult for Theresia’s parents to keep supporting her, due to climatic change affecting farming income. Most of her class mates were married, started working in hotels as housekeepers, or sent to other countries. She can’t wait to work hard as a guide and support her family.
Neema Willium
Neema is 19 years old from Eastern Singida. She worked as a hotel waiter, though is excited to start guiding to become financially independent and put herself through college.
Rahma Khamis
Born and raised in southern Singida, Rahma was involved a lot in Scouts growing up, and likes to play Soccer. She has found it hard finding work in Dar es Salaam, so she looks forward to working as a guide on Kilimanjaro.
Why the Singida Region?
325 km from Arusha, women from this region work very hard. They are famous for their work in farms, industries, household, and work in bars and restaurant, but they are paid a very low salary. Life in this region largely depends on agriculture, so they work their family farms by hand, with no machinery, and walk very long distance.
Glory visited Singida to recruit the very best guides, and learned from Secondary School teachers that after their exams, most girls were flown into town to work in restaurants, bars, or married at a very young age, sometimes without their consent. Glory works with the teachers to spread awareness of the Mountain Guide Training project, so they could tell their students about the opportunity for women to work as guides.
She spent two weeks in the Villages talking to parents and explaining the opportunity for their daughters to work on Kilmianjaro. She explains that the family is not expected to pay for anything, that their daughter will be paid a salary and that all of the money goes directly to them (some companies take percentages).
Why this is free?
Because our aim is to empower women and teach women that WE can bring back home the bacon.
10 guides in training were recruited from Singida, and supported under the contract of work from Solo Female Travelers for their 2023 International Women’s Day Kilimanjaro Climb. Donations from this same climb additionally supported the accommodation of 16 trainee guides for 6 months while they undertook education and English classes to improve their chances at selection of becoming a guide.
Support Our Mission: Email thobiasglory@icloud.com
