Mountains of heart

A GROWING cadre of travellers choose to make a difference in the places they visit by volunteering. Photographer Jacob Simkin of Melbourne is one such person.

Photographer ... and voluntourist, Jacob Simkin, making a difference. Simkin hopes to raise funds to build a school for girls in a remote area of Pakistan / Simkin

I CAME to Pakistan purely because I dreamt about building a school for girls in the mountains. I have two passions in my life; one is volunteer work and the second is mountaineering.

I hooked up with a friend who was making a documentary about Muktaran Bibi, an amazing woman who fighting for the rights of women in Pakistan.

After I finished the doco, I volunteered with many non-government organisations (NGOs) seeing all the places of Pakistan, a beautiful country with the most welcoming people.

When people think Pakistan, they think of terrorists but this is not the case. Illiteracy is the main problem and many men do not think women need an education. I battle to fight for women's rights in the northern areas in the mountains to send their daughters to school.

I was posted in Balakot in an orphanage looking after 30 children, playing cricket, their favourite past time, and teaching English. In turn I learnt Urdu. My project manager sent me to fulfil my dream to trek to K2 through the Baltoro Glacier: an amazing journey of falling avalanches and deep crevasses.

The caretaker of the orphanage took me to his home village in Manoor to celebrate the coming of Ramadan. I learnt to live for two weeks with no electricity or hot running water. I collected firewood, harvested corn and hunted for wild animals.

But a mountainous peak called Nooradin Peak stood in front of me and I had to scale it. I was almost got me crushed by an avalanche during the climb.

I lay for a whole day injured but the caretaker's daughters entertained me. They could not write, let alone draw, so I taught them to write their names and draw animals.

On my return homewards I found the place I want to build my school and plan to return with the money to fulfil this dream.