Leg amputee mountaineer sets sights on Europe’s highest peak

AMMAN — “After climbing Mount Everest, I feel that I had the power to do anything new for myself and for this world,” recalled Jarrah Al Hawamdeh, a 22-year-old amputee who recently made history by climbing to Mount Everest base camp in spite of his disability.

The young Jordanian, who lost his right leg to bone cancer at 15 years old, has now set his sights on climbing Mount Elbrus, the tallest mountain in Europe located in Russia.

Al Hawamdeh said his outstanding performance pushed him to go even further and “show people that nothing is impossible”.

He has been using his mountaineering skills to help raise money to save his former UNRWA school, which is in danger of closing due to recent drastic funding cuts to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Located in east Amman, Al Jofeh Boys School is one of the 174 UNRWA schools in Jordan which provide basic education to over 118,500 students, according to the UNWRA website. 

Al Hawamdeh, who is currently training for his next big challenge, recently became a “Friend of Palestine Refugees” with UNRWA, through which he helps raise awareness about the importance of education for Palestinian refugees.

“I feel like I am paying back my school, like I am responsible for these kids and their future,” the young man told The Jordan Times, stressing “they should have the same opportunity I had in this school to establish my future.”

Al Hawamdeh has been running a fundraising campaign under the slogan “#MyFirstStep”, which seeks to raise money for his former school which “helped him take his first step”. 

“My first step to keep my school open began on April 3 and, 17,500 steps later on April 14, I finally reached Mt Everest Base Camp [5,364m],” he said following his last month achievement, calling on people to donate at https://getinvolved.unrwausa.org/myfirststep 

In between training, he also created solidarity UNRWA stickers, which are sold at local events to raise money for the campaign, recently attracting the attention of local schools and institutions.

One of them is the Canadian International School, whose staff and students helped raise JD500 and visited the Al-Jofeh school. 

“After telling the students about my journey to Everest, one student asked me ‘Are you going to do anything really hard next, like fight a tiger?’,” Al Hawamdeh recalled with a smile.

“Jarrah is so popular now! He has become a real model for people to turn tough challenges into great opportunities and to show people that nothing is impossible,” a friend of Al Hawamdeh told The Jordan Times.

The young man said he was inspired for his latest challenge after watching a lot of videos on climbing Mount Elbrus, which is the tenth highest peak in the world. 

It will take Al Hawamdeh a year of training before he is ready to climb the snow-capped peak, which stands at a height of 5,642 metres, according to web sources. 

“I thought it would be an amazing journey if I did it, also because I have never been in Europe or in Russia before to climb,” he concluded.