fiogf49gjkf0d
1. Why did you decide to take that challenge?
The idea of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro actually came up from Othmane Jabri, a friend of mine who had earlier climbed mountains in Nepal and fallen in love with the experience. After discussing with him, I just loved the idea of going into the wild “almost”, getting out of my comfort zone and embarking on the journey of challenging dimensions, both physically and mentally. It made sense to try something new and challenge myself in such an environment.
2. Why climb Kilimanjaro? Is it your first fundraising initiative?
I have done mountain trekking before in Australia and I enjoyed the experience. Of course, that was on a much smaller scale (abound 850m), so climbing Kilimanjaro made a lot more sense. After all it is the highest free standing mountain in Africa and ranked 4th in the world. I don’t think any other challenge would excite me as much as that one.
This is also the first fundraising initiative that I undertake and am specially trying to leverage the Arab Watch Guide reach and the whole “watchfam” on social media.
3. How long will the journey take? How are you getting physically prepared?
The journey involves 6 days ascent and half a day descent – I will be accompanied by two of my friends. I have started my physical preparation with my trainer a few weeks back and we set up a whole program to condition my body to any kind of physical pressure on the journey. A lot of cardio exercises, running, stepping; enormous amount of leg work to strengthen the muscles for long walks up to 7-8 hours a day; and of course core body workouts for supporting my back when carrying my bags while trekking. I haven’t been on a specific diet to be honest, but I usually tend to eat healthy with lot of protein intake every day.
4. Why did you choose this charity in particular as opposed to the thousands of charities out there?
First, I am interested in helping out the refugee Syrian children since I am Syrian and I would love to contribute back to my community. This excludes most of the charities out there as not many have specific programs that support this cause. UNICEF Save a Child and Red Crescent Tarahamo program were two of the shortlisted charities that fit my vision. I contacted both of them in order to set up collaboration. UNICEF got back to me immediately with all the required support and setting up the link and the fund for the donations. Unfortunately I still haven’t heard from the Red Crescent to-date.
5. How did your friends and family and 38 thousand Instagram followers react to the initiative?
Frankly if there was any motivation out there, it was the one that came from my parents, family and many of my followers. Of course family support was expected, however my biggest thrill was to see such positivity, enthusiasm and support and care from many of my followers whom I haven’t met personally.
6. How can people express their support to your cause?
I think at this stage people can do two things. First, of course, donate to the cause. Any amount is always better than nothing. Second, repost my Instagram posts through their own pages and spread the word with the UNICEF link to their own entourage.
7. How are the donations made?
All the donations are made through the UNICEF link below set up for this campaign to be able to monitor the funds raised:
http://www.supportunicef.org/donatetosyria?msource=awg
8. Do you intend to motivate people to join the Kilimanjaro climb?
I don’t think I will be asking anyone to join at this stage pro-actively. I have proposed it a few times to friends around me to join me if they have the physical strength but many still fear the challenges and the conditions. As for me, it is also a personal challenge that I would like to overcome myself.
9. Did you get a sponsor to cover most of the cost?
I was able to secure three sponsors to cover the costs and also contribute to the charity itself.
10. What kind of support is Jaeger-LeCoultre offering? What about Arabian Watches & Jewellery and Money Watches? Are you satisfied with the support you are getting from your sponsors?
Jaeger-LeCoultre is going to provide me with one of their watches to take with me on the trip and create a story of my journey in Kilimanjaro through the eyes of the watch. I am also getting a lot of PR and media support from JLC. Money watches are supporting me in spreading the word on social media and will also leverage their website reach for video content creation after the trip. Finally AWJ is also supporting in spreading the word through their network as well as writing up the story of the journey before and after the climb.
11. Are you going to wear a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch on the way to the peak?
Yes I am going to wear the Master Compressor Chrono Ceramic during my entire journey.
12. How much money do you expect to raise?
I am aiming to raise USD 30K within two months of the campaign.
13. Will you collaborate with other social media accounts? Please explain.
So far I have been able to collaborate with Watch Anish, Patekaholic, Patchstyle, and many other smaller accounts to repost and spread the word – also some accounts are actually putting the link on their bio on Instagram. I am also constantly connecting with followers and influencers and asking them to repost on their respective pages. So the journey will only end when I start climbing that mountain. Until then any collaboration,
or support is always welcome and I am open to different ideas.
14. Any last words?
I must say that this entire challenge has created a new purpose in life for me and a great sense of community feel around me through all the support I have received so far. I am very much excited to take on that journey, first from a very selfish and personal perspective where I am challenging my own body and soul and getting as far as possible from the monotonous life I am used to and where I take many things for granted. Furthermore, the charity initiative is yet another challenge where I would like to see what impact I could have on my society and how much of an influencer I could be leveraging my social reach. I hope you all decide to partake in this journey with me one way or another as it is going to be a great one.