West Wales Vice Chair Tackles Jordan Trek for Soldiers Charity
West Wales Vice Chair, Antony Worsley, was part of the ABF The Soldiers’ Charity Wadi Rum Challenge Team that recently trekked through Jordan’s majestic World Heritage site, raising crucial funds for a worthy charity.
Finding dramatic, hidden desert scenery, including sandstone domes, rock formations, and granite and basalt striated mountains; wild camping beneath spectacular desert skies; and summiting Um Dami, Jordan’s highest mountain. The team walked 22-25km a day!
The home of several Bedouin tribes, the vast Wadi Rum, the Valley of the Moon, is most famous for its association with British Army Officer T. E. Lawrence, who passed through several times during the Arab Revolt of 1917–18. In the 1980s, one of the rock formations in Wadi Rum, originally known as Jabal al-Mazmar (The Mountain of the Plague), was named “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” after Lawrence’s book penned in the aftermath of the war.
The purpose of the trip is to raise vital funds so that all soldiers, veterans and their immediate families should have the opportunity to avoid hardship and enjoy independence and dignity. The overall scale, breadth and range of the Charity’s support is vast. They help very young serving families cope with a sudden bereavement or traumatic loss. They provide wide-ranging support to wounded soldiers, many of whom will need increasing financial assistance for decades to come. They provide help with housing, education and training for employment for soldiers and veterans of all ages. They are there for older veterans and their widows or widowers when they find themselves lonely or isolated.
In the past year, they have helped 70,000 people in 68 countries across the globe and funded numerous charities and organisations to support the Army family at large.
Credit to Photographer, Tim Hughes from Behind the Lens Media who joined the group on the trip.
