Abu Dis volunteers: Reaching New Heights

Last Thursday the children participating in CADFA’s summer camp rose to a new challenge; becoming Abu Dis’ first rock climbers.

The children arrived at the camp very excited, “tessolluck Roisin, tessolluck” (climbing Roisin, climbing). After checking everyone had water and suitable footwear we set off on our adventure. An hour and a half later and with lots of singing our minibuses pulled into Ein Qiniya, a small village outside of Ramallah. There we were greeted by a member of staff from Wadi Climbing, Anas, who informed the children of their first challenge; a half hour uphill hike to the crag. When we reached the top, having rested under the shade of a few olive trees, Tim, the founder of Wadi Climbing, talked the children through the ins and outs of climbing. He then set the children off on one of the four routes he had set up for the day. Wadi Climbing was set up a year ago by Tim and his business partner, Will, to promote climbing as a sport in Palestine and has so far taken 900 people on climbing trips in the West Bank.

Climbing regularly myself I had forgotten how strange it might be for the children to be lowered down at the end of the climb. One boy was not convinced about trusting and placing his weight on the rope and had to be talked through the process for nearly half an hour before he felt ready to come down. But after overcoming the initial uncertainties the children really enjoyed the climbing, with most flying up all four of the routes.

Two sisters stood out for the day for me. In my (unbiased) opinion they were the best climbers of the day; they had really good technique and were very natural on the rock. I was concerned before the trip that we would not have many girls sign up as I was not sure if parents would feel climbing was a suitable activity for their daughters. This proved not to be an issue for the majority of girls at the summer camp and it was really encouraging to see the sisters showing that climbing is as much a sport for women as it is for men.

Rock climbing was a big hit with the children of Abu Dis and we are very thankful to Wadi Climbing for running the trip for the summer camp. If anyone would like to find out more about Wadi Climbing’s work in Palestine visit their webpage, http://www.wadiclimbing.com/. Well done everyone, keep up the climbing!!