It takes some chutzpah to climb Mount Everest with all your limbs intact. But Arunima Sinha has an extra dose of that courage accomplishing the climb with just one leg. The 29 year old has many firsts to her name – the world’s first female amputee to climb the Everest, Kilimanjaro in South Africa, Elbrus in Russia, and Kosciusko in Australia.
This December she sets out to conquer Aconcagua in South America, and will then tackle McKinley (now Mt. Denali) in Alaska.
The recipient of many awards and recognition from the government of India and elsewhere, including the Malala Award, she has authored a book entitled “Born Again On The Mountain,” which was launched by India’s Prime Minister Narendar Modi, according to the education non-profit Share and Care Foundation’s organizers who have invited Sinha as a speaker at their Sept. 29 meeting in Paramus, N.J.
Dr. Ketki Shah, chair of the Women Empowerment initiative started last year by SCF, says Sinha would play a key role in the organization’s new initiative to build leadership qualities among girls and women from low income and tribal households.
“She is a living example of what women can achieve despite great odds,” Dr. Shah told Desi Talk.
The SCF’s Women Empowerment initiative includes self-defense training, gender equity and equality issues, and livelihood projects involving training of women. The women’s leadership initiative near Vadodara, Gujarat will be implemented through a series of “Dream India” camps. Several girls will be selected from low-income and adivasi areas for a week-long training for leadership.
Those who show extraordinary promise will then participate in subsequent camps with the opportunity to take up mountaineering. Which is where Sinha’s inspiration comes in.
A motivational speaker, along with her many other accomplishments, Sinha is already involved in several initiatives such as setting up the Saheed Chandra Shekhar Azad Viklang Khel Academy and the Prosthetic Limb Centre Society in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. She is a brand ambassador for the Karnataka Government’s sports and adventure department, and for Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’s U.P. chapter.
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