Mike Navolio is the kind of man you would follow up a mountain. Not just because he does this for a living, or rather, for his retirement, but because it’s evident from the moment you meet him that his many expeditions skyward have left an indelible mark on his soul.
Dressed in multi-pocketed cargo shorts, his nonprofit’s official polo, and sneakers, the tan, beard-clad, 73-year-old founder of Clean Water Climb seemingly keeps himself ready to trek 5,895 meters above sea level. He certainly knows how, having summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain on the African continent, on a fairly consistent basis since 2011. But he doesn’t do this for himself, he quickly explains. He does it for God.
Climbing for a Cause
Clean Water Climb, a local 501(c)(3), offers adventure-filled hikes to raise money for clean water in Malawi, Africa. That money is then sent to Child Legacy International, a nonprofit that serves as “the boots on the ground” repairing broken water wells in the region, Mike says.
Malawi, a landlocked, East African country of about 21 million people, is consistently ranked among the top ten poorest countries in the world. Devoid of resources like natural gas, oil, or minerals, most rural Malawians rely exclusively on a communal water well. But when that breaks, “they resort to a river or a hand-dug hole outside the village,” water that is contaminated, Mike shares.
It was for this purpose that Mike and a group of 10 others completed their premier climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011, a trip Mike planned and led after decades of avoiding high altitudes. This initial feat raised $80,000 and brought clean water to approximately 100,000 people across 50 Malawian villages.
And that was just the beginning.
Wells of Living Water
Now, through Clean Water Climb, first-time and long-time climbers are invited to fundraise for their very own “clean water climb” of Mt. Kilimanjaro to benefit Malawians.
Called “Prairie-Peak-Purpose,” the first part of the adventure, or “Prairie,” is an animal-filled, guided African safari to help you acclimate before your trek. The second part of the trip, or “Peak,” is your climb of the highest mountain in Africa, symbolic of overcoming the continent’s greatest problem — contaminated water. The final part of the trip, or “Purpose,” “is even higher than Kilimanjaro,” Mike says.
After summiting the dormant volcano in Tanzania with the help of a mountain guide, the climbers travel to rural Malawi to help Child Legacy repair a well. These repairs result in “explosive joy of singing and dancing” by the locals, Mike says. They signify life.
“You will never see as much joy as from the women in rural Malawi after their water well has been repaired.”
At every well repair, the climbers then share the gospel through one of three Bible stories memorized for the trip.
“Another way of thinking about it is we are bringing hope for today and hope for eternity.”
It’s the transformative power of this Living Water amid the arrival of clean water that leaves Mike close to tears: since its founding in 2008, Child Legacy has repaired 5,617 wells, benefiting 10,923,967 Malawians, and over 71,000 have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. Clean Water Climb, since its founding three years later, has funded 4,000 of those wells and has been on site to share the gospel with Malawi’s soul-weary, too.
For Mike, the mission is simple, and he wears a reminder of it on his wrist — John 14:14, Jesus’s words to the Samaritan woman: “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”