A hiking group in Iraq is creating opportunities for people with disabilities to experience the great outdoors.
The groups mission is to create safe activities and safe spaces for people with disabilities to enjoy. 12 volunteers accompany the hikers on these trips.
Since their formation in 2019, they’ve already helped nearly 1,000 people with all different disabilities take part in one of 30 different hikes.
One of those hikers is Jwana Mustafa, who is blind. She enjoys going hiking with the group and coming to nature. Since she’s unable to see, she loves that she can smell the flowers and hear the sounds of water while they are hiking.
“As the visually impaired, life was completely different before these trips,” Usama Khalifa, another blind hiker, told GMA. “We were stuck inside four walls and there weren’t any places where our community could meet, but now, there are cities and villages where visually impaired gather to take these short trips in the mountains.”
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These hiking trips have helped this community feel like they can finally exist without discrimination, and has brought them both strength and joy.
“What we did is support a group of people with disabilities who were previously isolated in their homes and couldn’t imagine themselves doing anything like this, let alone climbing mountains,” said Hiwa Aziz, the group’s leader.
The group has received great feedback from the hikers’ families, who said their mental health was poor before but has since significantly improved.
Learn more about this amazing group in the video below:
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Source: The Autism Site Blog
