Sajaya Young Ladies fete Kilimanjaro summiteers

Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah (SYL) has hosted an honouring ceremony for its eight members (all under the age of 18) who successfully climbed Africa’s highest mountain after a continuous seven-day trek last month, recording a milestone achievement for themselves and for Sajaya.

The ceremony was held at Sajaya headquarters in the presence of Sheikha Aisha Khalid Al Qasimi, Director of SYL, who highlighted the organisation’s keenness to train its members build new life skills, and enhance qualities of perseverance, determination and teamwork in them.

“I congratulate all our eight young ladies who, through this incredible achievement of summiting Kilimanjaro, have become role models for other young girls and women in Sharjah and the UAE. Their determination and compassion is what guided them on their journey of success”, she said.

“Our strong-willed girls have made us proud. This achievement is a testimony to their strong collaboration and dedication as a team to reaching their targeted goals,” Sheikha Aisha added.

Sajaya’s partners including Fatimal Ali Darian, Sultan Al Obaidali, Lieutenant Salem Al Sunaqidi, Lieutenant Waleed Al Hammadi, 1st Policeman Hazza’ Jafar Al Jalaf, Shamsa Jamal Al Falasi, Adnan Abdulrahman Al Baloushi, Ali Ibrahim Jamal, Khadija Al Torki and Robin Paige were honoured at the event.

An earlier report said the eight young members of Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah (SYL) paid a towering tribute to the UAE’s women by reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. These gritty ladies, all under the age of 18 years, showed their peers back home in the UAE that nothing is impossible to achieve if one is committed to their goals.

After undergoing months of rigorous training delivered by experienced mountaineers like Emirati Engineer Adnan Abdulrahman and the Abu Dhabi Police team who have both scaled Kilimanjaro, the young mountaineers began a 7-day climb up to Africa’s highest mountain on Aug.21.

Reaching the summit on the day UAE honours the instrumental role of Emirati women in shaping UAE society and economy, and is symbolic of the capabilities of future generations of local women who will be carrying forward this great legacy of leadership and success forged by current generations of Emirati women across sectors.

Sheikha Aisha Khalid Al Qassimi, Director of SYL, highlighted that with this climb, the entity crossed a milestone in promoting its efforts to empower Emirati young ladies with the necessary physical and mental skills to lead successful, well-rounded lives.

She said: “The achievement reinforces our ambition to promote awareness of the importance of sports for girls, increase their abilities to really discover who they are and focus on their holistic development. We are extremely proud of this year’s mountaineering project’s participants and were delighted to see how expertly all of them put their learning into practice individually, while supporting and inspiring the others in the group."

Six girls from the participants were able to reach the top of Mount Kilimanjaro at 10.05am, followed by Noor Jasim, who arrived at 11.17am, and then Shouq, who arrived at 12.47am.

Around the same time last year, SYL’s first Emirati ladies team specialised in hiking and mountaineering successfully summitted Mount Toubkal in Morocco – Atlas range’s highest peak.

The activity falls under SYL’s adventure club, founded in 2016 with the slogan ‘To the Furthest Limit’, to promote physical and mental endurance, teamwork, leadership and independence. Sajaya’s members use this space to undergo weekly training sessions.

Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah is dedicated to developing the talents of girls aged 13 to 18 years in all creative spheres. Established in 2004 under the umbrella of Sharjah Children’s Centres, it became an independent entity in 2012 following an administrative decree from Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) and Chairperson of the Rubu’ Qarn Foundation for Creating Leaders and Innovators.