GAZA, (PIC)
The Palestinian Jordanian climber Mustafa Salama carries a kite on which dreams of children from Gaza are written, on a journey to the summit of Mount Everest, with the aim of shedding light on the suffering of children as a result of the war and delivering their messages to the world.
Salama is accompanied on his journey by a kite in the colors of the Palestinian flag, red, black, white, and green, decorated with handwritten messages by children from Gaza, reflecting simple dreams shaped by war, displacement, and loss, and carrying hope for a future that transcends destruction and suffering.
Salama, 56 years old, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse that the dreams of Gaza children “will reach the top of the world.” He added that the children he met near the Rafah crossing after they left for Egypt live in harsh conditions, in light of the loss of homes, education, clean water, food, and medicine.
Salama seeks during the journey to collect ten million dollars for the benefit of the British Al-Khair Charity Foundation, which provides food, health, shelter, and psychological support assistance to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
The war caused the displacement of most of the residents of the Strip, while hundreds of thousands still live inside tents amid difficult humanitarian conditions, despite the ceasefire coming into effect last October.
Salama emphasizes that his goal goes beyond climbing the summit to delivering the voices of children to the world, saying that the world “ignores what is happening in Palestine,” and that the journey also aims to raise awareness and collect donations.
The messages written on the kite carry mixed feelings between sadness and ambition; children expressed their desire to become doctors and engineers to rebuild their destroyed homes, while others wrote down their painful memories with the war.
Salama recounts that a girl named Munira asked him to write the number 47 on the kite, explaining that the number represents the number of members of her family who were killed during the war.
Simple change
Salama was born in Kuwait to a Palestinian family, and grew up in a refugee camp, before his journey with mountain climbing began after a dream he saw in 2004, in which he appeared standing on the summit of Mount Everest raising the call to prayer.
After several attempts, he was able in 2008 to reach the highest summit in the world, before later completing the challenge of climbing the highest summits in the continents and reaching the North and South Poles.
His previous journeys carried several humanitarian goals, including collecting donations for blind children, cancer patients, and those affected by wars, while the war on Gaza prompted him to return again to climb Everest, despite his previous pledge not to return to it.
Salama says that his biggest dream is not limited to reaching the summit, but rather is represented in seeing Palestine free one day, and being able to visit it.
