Kuwaiti Lad Climbs Mount Kilimanjaro for Cancer
An example of a young Kuwaiti man making a difference in the community. Bravo! This is a press release from the Kuwait News Agency written by Ahmad Al-Rifaie:
Kuwaiti mountain climber Faisal Al-Nakib successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa, in an attempt to raise awareness on cancer and how to prevent it.Speaking to KUNA, Al-Nakib said that on July 3, he was able to reach the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro along with seven contestants from different countries, out of a total of 19 who had begun the climb on June 26. He expressed his great joy at having succeeded in reaching the top.
"I was the first to reach the summit, and I was able to endure the harsh climate conditions - the severe cold and the difficulty breathing - during the eight hours of night climbing," he said. He noted that this was a great challenge for him, as Kilimanjaro was 5,895 meters above sea level. "My strong will and strong desire to succeed made me reach the top," he added.
He explained that 70,000 pounds were collected for the Orchid Cancer organization, aimed at raising awareness over this condition. "
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Hi there, I am the Kuwaiti Lad that the article was referring to. I an honored that you have found my story worthy of your blog. There will be a full article that I have written for Bazaar magazines June issue and I hope it will paint a much more realistic picture of what myself and the other 19 other Orchid Cancer trekkers out ourselves through. It was the most wonderful experience of my life, and doing it for charity, raising £70000 with just 19 people says alot about how easy it is to help. I am planning to climb Mont Blanc in June 2010 for Orchid Cancer again, and I will take on Aconcagua in January 2011 for Sense International which is a charity dedicated to helping people in the developing world see and hear, basically communicate. I appreciate your help in mentioning my story. I would also like to make a statement that in Kuwait there tends to be alot of talk about raising awareness because in some ways, and I could be wrong but I tend to read about charity here in Kuwait and there isn't enough of it. It always seems to be about raising awareness but not so much about raising money. Raising awareness is great, but raising money is better. I thank you once again. regards Faisal W. Al-Nakib
Dear Faisal!
I am the one who is honored! I can't believe you stumbled upon my website! Yeah, I really appreciate men like you who making a big difference for a good cause, and as you say, the largest strides are made through concrete results, aka, fundraising.
I will also post a link to your article for Bazarre Magazine when the issue comes out, but do you mean for the September issue or did it already come out?
Also, I was wondering, if it is not answered in the soon to be released article, how you got involved in the charity, how you linked charity/climbing together so that other people potentialy thinking of doing a fundraising activity have information to draw on. Also, how have you gotten in touch with these different charities? Are there any local charities that you are a member of or have a relationship with?
Your story really touched me and this month I am trying to focus on young male rolemodels and innovators. I think you are a wonderful example.
Hi, Well I stumbled upon by chance, I was googling the kuwaiti newspapers because I let out a press release this week for those that didn't know I had returned successful.
To answer your question I started hiking 3 years ago mainly in the French Alps. I go alone usually and I'd spend 1 - 2 weeks just hiking. After thinking about why I always do these things alone and for no real reason than my own summer holiday pleasure, I started googling charity hikes/climbs. And that is where it started getting seriously fun :) Kilimanjaro for me was the make or break mountain, If I did it, then I would go on and climb as many of the highest summits in the world for Charity, if I failed, I would have to reconsider what I was doing because then I couldn't make the challenges harder. But now I can and they will be increasingly more difficult :) The other fundraisers that did kilimanjaro with me, they are from all walks of life, men, women, young, old, I think one fundraiser even summited with cancer, you see how amazing that is, and for such a physically challenging mountain, its awe inspiring. This is life, helping others and facing real problems to the human race, none of this material rubbish that people fantasize about every day that is shoved in our faces by the media. But we are going to change all this, I already have a young Kuwaiti guy who read about my article in June and also decided to try the same thing. You see we can help and when it starts with the youth, then we have saved the next generation from our generation's inactive charitable duties to mankind.
I have posted the link to the first article in Bazaar that was for the June issue, it was designed to encourage people that I didnt know to donate but sadly It didn't quite encourage enough of the public even though the editor at Bazaar had written such an excellent article for me. I think though it's one of those cases of making people familiar with who you are and what exactly it is that you do, it isn't about trying to be popular its about reaching out to people and getting them to put some money towards a wonderful cause rather than wasting it on junk food or at the mall. Things have to change, and they will, and actually they are.
And yes my mistake I meant Bazaar Magazine's September issue :) sorry for that and the other little typo's. If you go to Bazaar magazine's sight, go to "people" section and then "interviews" I think you will find "Donate Now". I'm sorry I couldn't put the link my connection is failing.
If anyone is interested in doing a charity hike its easy, just "google" I chose UK based ones because I go to visit my family and friends there in the summer. So its easy for Uk to be my launch pad It wouldn't be difficult though because these organizations, they tend to be very helpful.
Thanks again for carrying the voice of charity. It's great and I really appreciate you taking the time for this.
Regards
Faisal