Seven Mountains Initiative achieves new heights to help support cancer patients

AMMAN — The 19 teenage climbers of the Seven Mountains Initiative (SMI) completed their climb of Tanzania’s Mount Meru on July 5, collecting a total of $300,000 for underprivileged cancer patients over the past two years.

Founded in 2018, the initiative “aims to climb seven mountains in a span of seven years in order to raise funds and help those who have their own obstacles to climb”, SMI’s founder and International School of Choueifat Principal Louay Shomali told The Jordan Times.

Shomali said his reason for choosing cancer patients as the initiative’s beneficiaries was because he knew that “there are children who... cannot receive treatment because of their inability to obtain a medical support or pay for the treatment by themselves, and it was a very disturbing thought”.

Almost 70 per cent of the collected funds directly support the treatment of cancer patients at the King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC), while the remaining 30 per cent are given to a different charity each year, according to the SMI webpage.

Last year, the team successfully climbed Morocco’s Mount Toubkal and raised double their target amount, around $210,000.

This year, the team of volunteers, aged 14 to 16, were led by Jordanian mountaineer Mostafa Salameh in their ascent of Mount Meru and raised almost $70,000 in support.

Yousef Wahhab, a member of the SMI team, told The Jordan Times that the training process took over a year but “was all worth it after we successfully completed the climb and came back to meet the children we were helping over at KHCC”.

Yousef Ismail, a 17-year-old who climbed Mount Meru, said that the process of raising funds was “a new one, and thus very difficult, but we had who we were helping in mind and that pushed us to get out of our comfort zones”.

Each student was supposed to raise a minimum of $5,000 as part of the initiative.

Nisreen Qatamish, director general of the KHCC said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times: “We are proud of our Seven Mountains Initiative heroes, who possess the spirit of benevolence and determination. Their tireless efforts in fundraising and climbing Mount Meru help us give our patients the support they need in order to overcome cancer, God willing.”