Eight young members of Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah (SYL) have paid a towering tribute to the UAE’s women by reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on Wednesday. These gritty ladies, all under the age of 18 years, have 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, has highlighted that with this climb, the entity has 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. In undertaking this daring expedition with such enthusiasm and determination, these ladies have truly inspired everyone at SYL, in Sharjah and the UAE.”

Six girls from the participants were able to reach the top of Mount Kilimanjaro at 10:05 am, 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.