My Mission:

Friends, family, colleagues and fellow exercisers - I am excited to share with you my commitment to travel with MuslimCharity to fundraise for the development of a series of peace-homes that will ensure the safety and security of exploited and impoverished children.. I will be travelling to Pakistan where I’ll be trekking to a height of 5,500m to the base camp of Nanga Parbat. FYI ‘Nanga Parbat’ literally translates as ‘Naked Mountain’ in English but for good housekeeping and the avoidance of any doubt, my intention is to carry out the trek fully clothed!

The aim of the campaign is to ensure the full spectrum of children’s rights are covered by working on advocacy and awareness as well as necessary interventions and provisions, protecting children from harm’s way. The stated objective is to raise a minimum of £3k. Nevertheless, I hope to raise in excess of the target for such an important intervention, thus awarding you all with the opportunity of sharing in such a noble and needy cause.

“How far you go on in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong – because someday you will have been all of these“  - George Washington Carver

About the Charity:

The charity has launched the ‘Children of the World’ campaign to support and champion children’s rights all over the world, regardless of their backgrounds. Hitherto, the charity’s work has rescued over 2,000 children from the streets of Bangladesh. These children have been abandoned by their parents or have been trafficked into bonded labour and the sex trade. Additionally, many vulnerable children who have no choice but to hazardously labour in back alley factories and rubbish dumps to support their families are aimed to be supported by the charity.

 Street Children Key Facts:

• 600 children are sponsored worldwide

• Emergency night shelters are provided for 5,500 children to sleep soundly

• Over 2,000 children rescued

• 600 children have been reunited with their families

A newly launched “Bachon Ki Dunya” ‘ A Children’s World ‘
project in Karachi, Pakistan, educates these children. Through innovative informal school settings at various sites of the city, it aims to prepare them for mainstream schooling and arm them with an education!

There is also the Children of War – Syrian Children as young as 5 and 6 years old have been exposed to the horrors of war, death and destruction. Some have lost all family members and travelled from Syria to Lebanon with strangers. These children are supported through the charity’s orphan sponsorship programme which supports their education, clothing, shelter, food and psycho-social work to treat the deep trauma they live with.

My Endeavour and Your Support:

This endeavour will not only challenge my aversion for heights but also test my stamina and endurance to the limit on the actual five day trek. And… just for added difficulty I will be training for the trek through Ramadan and its’ month of eighteen hour fasts with no water and no food. I run the risk of depending on Alfredo (pictured below) who is the local Uber on the trek and whose services I am hoping not to utilise. Legend has it, Alfredo is of Sicilian decent from the infamous Corleone village. His ancestors travelled across the Alps and through Asia to settle in the Himalayan regions in the 1950’s. As one would expect from his imperious lineage, he is extremely short and bad tempered. Being renowned for his bite and kick, he is one most definitely not to be indebted to and best avoided!

 As I am no Sherpa Tenzing I will be enlisting the help of my Crossfit crew below to push me the extra mile to reach the prerequisite levels of fitness and so ensuring Alfredo’s services are not called upon in any shape or form.

So please, please dig deep and join me in putting a smile on
some little people’s faces.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” - Nelson Mandela