Waterfall in Ghana named after Dubai

An adventurer from Dubai Men's College has named a waterfall in the remote mountains of Ghana after Dubai.

Yasir Asad, a Level 3 Computer Networking student in the College, recently returned from a nine-week adventure with Raleigh International Ghana Expedition.

Asad explained that the adventurers discovered three new waterfalls that were not listed on the official map of Ghana.

"I named one of them 'Dubai Waterfalls' and put the UAE flag at the top. This will be the official name for the waterfall," he said.

Asad said he learned about the expedition through an online advertisement. After talking to Sam Shanks, Raleigh coordinator at DMC, he applied to participate.

The expedition involved a range of activities, from construction work deep in the rain forests, to teaching native children in a primitive school, and surveying remote uncharted territory.

Asad then spent months searching for a sponsor to finance the enormous cost of equipment, clothing, travel, visas and journey fees.

"The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department sponsored my journey. I met with Major Jasim Abdulghafor in the Public Relations office many times. He believed that this would help me improve my leadership skills," he said.

The ultimate challenge for Asad was the adventure project, aimed at helping the wildlife division gain control of the remote eastern region near the Togo border to build a national park.

"I will never forget the journey because I learned a lot that I'll be using in my daily life," said Asad.

'In the first week, we learned how to survive such things as animal attacks, and first aid, and the best ways to cross rivers and how to deal with emergencies like how to make a landing area for a helicopter. If we had an emergency, we could trigger a satellite device in the top of our rucksacks, which sends a signal to the field base."

Working and living in extreme conditions forced the group members to adapt.

"For the environmental project, we were building rangers' huts in Bia National Park, 15 kilometres from the nearest village. The problem was when we faced huge and poisonous insects. We even found a dangerous species, something between a huge spider and a scorpion," he recalled.

"I washed clothes and cooked for the first time in my life. Each day one of us was chosen as the leader responsible for everything - security, food, and even the project site." Another phase of the adventure was the community project phase that involved building an action aid office in the Kwakupanfo region.