Supporters of Swansea charity Faith in Families have raised over £30,000 in a 100km trek in Jordan.
Faith in Families CEO Cherrie Bija was joined on the challenging Wadi Rum trek by 15 supporters, including her son Ellis Taylor, and members of the business community across Wales – Caroline Platt, Bev Garside, Ceri Potter, Caludia Whittaker, Gilli Davies, Jane Storer, Jordan Wilcox, Linda Fox, Marcus Elphick, Mark Bowden, Phillipa Fraison, Sue West- Jones, Beth Thomas and Iwan Griffiths.
Wadi Rum, also known as the Desert of the Moon, is a spectacular granite sandstone valley in Jordan made famous by the film Lawrence of Arabia.
The Wadi Rum 100km trek involves some challenging ascents and descents, taking in wilderness and desert scenery and scaling Jordan’s highest mountain, Umm ad Dami (1854m), which lies directly on the Saudi Arabian border. Setting off on October 28, the team took five days to complete the trek, camping en route – often in wild locations.
On completing the trek, Beth Thomas, specialist mortgage adviser with Sturgess Mortgages, said:
“This experience has been life-changing. Not only has it been a challenge, but it’s inspired me to want to do more for the charity, because Faith in Families has become a really integral part of my life and I want to ensure that children living in poverty in our local community are able to experience what they deserve.”
Marcus Elphick, operations director of Plexus Fire and Safety, added:
“I’d encourage anybody who’s even considering the Wad Rum challenge to grasp it with both hands and just jump on board. It’s not just an opportunity to help a fantastic charity by raising awareness and funds, but it’s just an exceptional trip. For me personally it’s been an epic adventure in extraordinary country, with incredible people.”
Cherrie Bija added that the funds raised are vitally important. The money raised will support Faith in Families’ work to support children living in poverty through its Brighter Futures project.
In the past year the charity delivered over 1404 children’s play and support activities which had over 16,344 attendances. They delivered 10,650 hours of bespoke 1-2-1 intensive support to 839 children across 43 schools in Swansea for free, to ensure everyone could access, and facilitated 211 peer group sessions in primary and secondary schools to raise awareness of mental health.
Faith in Families also worked with 178 parents, providing essential skills and back-to-work support, and to help with this they delivered 37,550 hours of affordable childcare.
Bija said: “Swansea has 70,700 children and young people out of an approximate population of 237,800 people. As of 2022, 34% of children in Wales were living in poverty. I’d like to thank all the amazing people who joined us on our Wadi Rum trek and the people back home who sponsored them, sending us past our target of £30,000 at a time when our services are vitally needed. In all my years running Faith in Families I have never seen such severe poverty as families in Swansea are experiencing now – even with both parents working to try to stay afloat. The money raised from this trek will help us deliver support where it is urgently needed.”
