What is Yambi?
Yambi is an association founded in 2020 by Clélia Compas, a specialist in migration issues (consultant at the UN office in Thailand, then she undertook a doctorate in migration studies at the University of Sussex).
The aim of the association is to establish human links, to strengthen the power of refugees to act and to accelerate their integration into the host society through mountain activities.
The Road to Mont Blanc.
Today they are launching a new challenge: allowing 5 refugees to climb Mont Blanc in July 2021.
To date, no refugee has ever climbed Mont Blanc, so this adventure will be a first.
In this expedition they will be accompanied by professional high mountain guides, but also by Marion Haerty (three-time free ride snowboard world champion), Léo Slemett (free ride ski world champion), Clélia Compas (founder of the association), Vincent Darré (Co-photographer) as well as Dr Christine Janin (first French woman to have climbed Everest and godmother of the association.)
The ascent will be carried out using a buddy system associating a refugee with a local person. The pairs will train from April 2021 and will climb Mont Blanc together on the same rope.
The purpose of the expedition?
Produce a documentary and a photo exhibition to raise public awareness of the cause of refugees by exploiting the strength of the symbolic parallel between the effort required to climb Mont Blanc and the difficulty of the path towards integration into a society of welcome.
In accordance with the principles of inclusion and co-creation governing all of the activities of the YAMBI association, the design of the documentary will bring together refugees and locals (production, framing, musical composition).
And to go further.
The documentary and the photo exhibition will serve as support for fundraising to open a solidarity café in Annecy in which the employees would be refugees. The café would serve as a training place where refugees could prepare for service careers before going to work for other establishments. This place would also serve as a classroom where French lessons would be given regularly outside the café's opening hours.
How does Feed.back support the project?
Feed.back supports the project through financial assistance for the purchase of specialized equipment and to finance one of the high mountain guides who will supervise the expedition. But also through material assistance. Indeed, after a test of our Original and Sport bars in real conditions (high altitude training) the participants wanted to be supported on the nutrition part. This is why we have provided them with 130 practical and balanced meals to help them during the ascent.
Portraits.
Jomah Khan, the dreamer.
Originally from Bamiyan, the capital of Hazarajat in Afghanistan, Jomah belongs to the Hazara ethnic group. This ethnic group is often the victim of persecution, kidnapping and massacres. He left Kabul at 18 and spent three and a half years in Sweden before being refused political refugee status. Fearing being repatriated to Afghanistan, he finally arrived in France. Like all asylum seekers, Jomah Khan cannot work and faces great loneliness. He wants to stand on the roof of the Alps, at the top of his new home, to prove to himself that this is where his life will be made.
Grace, the artist.
Grace was born in Ukraine in Kharkov to Congolese parents who fled Congo following the fall of Monbutu. Living conditions for black Africans are difficult in Ukraine. A victim of ethnic discrimination, the Ukrainian government requested the expulsion of his parents in 2014 to their country of origin, Congo. To avoid the same fate, Grace and her brother left Ukraine in 2017 and went to France where their asylum requests were accepted. “ Life is a series of trials and summits, that’s what makes it so powerful.”
Sikou, the hard worker.
Barely out of adolescence, Sikou saw no other option than to leave his native Mali to escape the community massacres which were increasing in the context of civil war. He takes a chance and crosses the Mediterranean Sea. He survived the crossing and arrived in France in 2019. Sikou applied for asylum, with no response to date. He wants to start a professional career as soon as possible as a mason or electrician. The mountain is his decompression valve, allowing him to escape and forget his problems for a moment.
Quambar, the champion.
Like Jomah Khan, Qambar is Afghan and belongs to the Hazara ethnicity. He too fled his country, the Taliban, the Islamic State and persecution. His request for protection by the French state having been accepted, he took on odd jobs then was made redundant like many others following the COVID-19 crisis. Sport is his escape, it's what allows him to escape, to overcome the anxieties of everyday life. He is even considered a “star” in the small community of Afghan refugees in Annecy thanks to his sporting exploits (the Maxi Race, the Maxi Snow and the Sainte Lyon). This summit of Mont Blanc is for Qambar a sporting objective with this crazy desire to run for a living and to be considered like the others.
Abdul Saboor, the co-photographer.
Born in 1992, in Nagrahar, Afghanistan, Abdul Saboor had to provide for himself from a very young age. He worked with the US Army for 6 years. Wanted by the Taliban, he is forced to flee his country. Always equipped with a camera, he immortalizes the journey of his exile, of his two years spent crossing Europe to France. Always equipped with a camera, he immortalizes the journey of his exile, of his two years spent crossing Europe to France. His photographs are exhibited in Serbia, Spain, England, Poland and France in the windows of the Ministry of Culture, at the Cité des Mots etc.
Together they will prove that anything is possible. It doesn't matter where you come from. And Feed.back will help them reach the stars.
