After the initiative TRADITIONAL LIFE REVIVAL PROJECT, which allows you to encourage by your presence a Bedouin family to recover a traditional lifestyle in the desert, PATHS OF JORDAN is launching a new program:

RIDE FOR A CHILD!

a pioneer initiative for the benefit of the children of Wadi Araba, the long desert valley that stretches between Aqaba and the Dead Sea. The principle is easy: camel excursions are proposed in the sand dunes of this virgin desert at a slightly higher rate than what is usually applied in Wadi Rum. The difference is reserved to finance school supplies for Bedouin children of the area.

The standard experience is a 2h30 ride, including a stop for a Bedouin tea cooked on fire. This duration is sufficient for you to enjoy the wonderful scenery and the thin sand dunes, and for us to extract the amount needed for supplying school furniture of good quality to a child at the beginning of his school year.

The camels used are raised by the local community and have never worked in tourism. Therefore they are not subject to the abuses induced by the mass tourism, are well treated and in good health. The project of setting camel excursions in this part of Jordan is pioneer. It is geared towards a controlled number of travelers. In no case it should become an open door to a popular attraction and animal exploitation.

Coming either from Aqaba in the south or from the Dead Sea in the north, you suddenly enter into a wide and lonely valley with magnificent and wild sceneries. On the Eastern side, rocky mountains show the colorful foothills of the Transjordan plateau where the Jordan famous sites of Petra, Shobak and Kerak stagger. Isolated Bedouin communities are settled along those foothills, taking their livelihood from sheep and camel raising, limited agriculture and some jobs provided by army and police. Some families are still semi-nomadic and live partly under tents. The Wadi Araba is one of the poverty pockets in Jordan.

In this context, families are aware that a good education is the key to their children’s future. Nevertheless, the education level remains relatively low and the dropout rate from school is high among the boys. The donation of school material positively impacts the local community at different levels, as:

- It financially relieves the modest families at the time of the return to school

- It provides a quality material that cannot be found in the area

- It brings joy and self-satisfaction to the children who can produce a better work and beautiful drawings

- It incites children to a better assiduity in class, by not only increasing their attendance but also   encouraging them to make their homework.

The material may be a binder or a kit containing notebooks and pencils case, or both of them, depending on the amount of money we collect and the number of children to supply.

Join the initiative and enjoy an authentic camel ride in a still virgin desert!