It’s an interesting thing, donating money to charity. Usually, people ask, you stick your hand in your pocket, and you hand over some cash. Job done. No idea who the money is really going to, whether it will get to the people that need it, or even whether it will make a difference.
Established in the UAE in 2001, Gulf for Good don’t ask you just for money, they ask you to put yourself through gruelling and sometimes extreme challenges that really help put life, yours and other people’s, into perspective. Challenges also include direct contact with the recipient of the raised funds. Whether it is physically helping to build new houses for villagers or visiting orphanages, you can be sure it will be an experience you will never forget, often leaving participants emotionally affected by what they have seen and the touching stories people have told.
Obviously the recipients of the funds benefit enormously, but doing the challenge itself often turns out to be a life-changing experience for many challengers.
Challenges have included summiting Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp, cycling from Bangkok to Angkor Wat, walking the Great Wall of China and a multi-activity adventure in Borneo.
The most recent challenge saw 28 participants take on an epic bike ride around the UAE taking in all seven emirates raising money for the Al Manar Charity School in Ajman currently educating 2400 students.
It provides free schooling for both boys and girls up to the age of 16, but has no government funding, so is reliant entirely on public donations.
The children are of 36 different nationalities. More than 400 of these children are either abandoned or orphaned and at least 2000 of them are living in very vulnerable conditions.
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge began before a single pedal had been turned when 28 strangers from all walks of life, background and nationality met for the first time as a group. The next 5 days would see us eat, sleep, ride and suffer 
extreme conditions together – all for a common goal.
Excitement, nerves, anticipation, fear – just a few of the emotions clearly evident on that first morning as we embarked on the tarmac route that took us from Al Ain Hili Park to Buraimi passing through the Omani border. It was a long drag to the campsite some 75km away, the road led us over undulating terrain that never seemed to end. A ‘wonderful’ (and I say that through gritted teeth as I remember the pain), long steep climb in the pitch black night following the pin-prick blinking lights of other riders was the last obstacle to be tackled before we could enjoy the comfort of our campsite and a hot meal – sleep wasn’t far away.
Challenger, Marc van-den-Broucque says, “I was so tired at the end of every day that I could have slept on a bed of nails to be honest! But meeting people around the campfire every night and having great BBQ’d food made it more enjoyable.”
A hearty breakfast cooked up by our very talented Nepalese camp-chef and the beautiful sun-dappled mountains were just enough to distract from steep gravel tracks winding up and over some monster climbs, and, although the day’s 92km seemed to have consisted of nothing but tough hill climbs, tunnels and traffic, a long fast downhill was enough to wipe the memories of the day’s ascents as we swept, head down into Kalba with a majestic view across the ocean and at last, a rest off the bike seat.
Challenger, Michael Cooke says, “There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a long winding downhill payback after a punishing climb.” I couldn’t agree more Michael!
Dibba is a different world, especially in the morning light. A tranquillity punctuated only by the odd clip-clip of a goat hurried along by its owner. By now our morning routine was established – eat, brush teeth, check bike, fill water bottles and prepare for the day ahead with a short warm-up. We had quickly become a unit; riding out of camp zig-zagging backroads and chatting away like old friends.
Challenger, Marc van-den-Broucque says, “We all got along really well – by the end of the second day you wouldn’t have been able to tell that we hadn’t known each other for years. It was great to see everyone bond really well despite any differences in ability on the bikes.”
A tarmac section led us to the most difficult part of the day. Wadi Yas al Akl, through and up the Wadis Sidr and Sana – an incredibly challenging route for many reasons. It was touching 37 degrees with no breeze when we entered the narrow wadi and the gradual, almost invisible climb up the dried river bed had us all wondering how we could possibly have prepared for this gruelling mix of loose stones and gravel, boulders, tough climbs and technical descents. A final push across a long bone-rattling, teeth loosening stretch of wadi led us into the small village of Al Ghail where we were relieved to see the yellow tents of camp as well as a welcoming committee consisting of a few local kids dressed in National Day garb, curious to know what on earth we were doing on their sand race track.
Thursday morning had us on a bus and heading for the Al Manar School in Ajman where we were welcomed by a small group of representatives to give us a tour and show us how the funds raised will benefit the school and its students. It’s difficult to believe that an affluent country like the UAE can have such a school (and this is not the only one) funded entirely by charitable donations. It was evident that sanitation and developmental equipment is an absolute necessity where just a few barely functioning toilets service the students and a couple of slides in disrepair are the sum total of stimulation at play.
Challenger, Michael Cooke says, “It was great to see immediately where the money could potentially go to make some genuine improvements in a short time.”
Challenger, Ben Gleisner-Cooke says, “It was interesting to see where the money would be going, and certainly highlighted that the project is in need of donations to further enhance what can be offered to students. Seeing how funds will make a difference underlined the real value of the cycle challenge. I’d ride up 1000 more hills if it meant a child gained an education they otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Back to camp after the visit and it was a short tarmac road ride giving us all a false sense of security as we turned and saw the sand tracks that lay ahead. The only things meant to get across these sand flats are camels, so our bikes were at a disadvantage from the start! Ride, dismount, walk, mount, ride, fall, mount, ride, walk, get back on, grind through and battle on. But no-one gave up. And the faces at the end, a sight to behold – smiling, exhausted, grinning, scowling, laughing, swearing. Magic.
Another wonderful night in the desert had us wake up to a freezing cold start to the last day and the final 77km battle across pan-flat tarmac roads and through side-winds. Smiles were everywhere – I imagine mostly thinking of the soft, clean-smelling sheets of that night’s bed, that GDI cleaning crew was top notch. Rolling victorious back into Bab Al Shams I think I speak for everyone when I look ba¬ck on an exciting, eventful, emotional, tough, challenging, thoroughly enjoyable, adventure-filled ride. To make thing even more rewarding, the cycle group had managed to raise a whopping AED 350,000! Let’s do it again sometime!
Visit www.gulf4good.org and check out the 2012 challenges. Sign up and change yours and maybe someone else’s life.
