The silver lining

A group of young people undertaking their Silver Award at the Open Award Centre leave on Sunday, October 27 to travel to the Spanish hills in order to complete their qualifying Silver Adventurous Journey (AJ).

The 26 participants, whose ages range from 15 to 17 years, will travel to the Sierra de Gredos northwest of Avila and return to Gibraltar on Friday, November 1, to complete the AJ, which for most participants is the most arduous part of the Award Programme. The AJ entails travelling approximately 50 kilometres by foot over three days with two nights spent under canvas. The participants will carry all their food, tents, stoves, fuel and other equipment in their rucksacks for these four days as they are expected to be self-sufficient during the venture.

As if that is not enough, they are expected to do this in unfamiliar wild country and do so by navigating their way along a pre-planned route, hopefully without deviating too much and definitely without getting lost.

But that is not all, the Award requires that participants undertake ‘a journey with a purpose’ and to this end they will need to produce a written report of the venture. The topic is of their choosing and needs to be relevant to the area they are visiting.

During the AJ they will be monitored by Gredos-based independent assessors, who will determine if the participants are observing the correct Country Code procedures, correctly navigating across the hills and meeting the requirements for a qualifying venture.

Once back in Gibraltar the participants will then need to prepare a presentation on their respective team goals which they will then present to locally-based Assessors in order to complete all the AJ Requirements.

The participants will be accompanied by adult leaders, Gaby Grech, Romany Vinent, Harriet Blundell, Stephen Vinent, and Mouetaz Ziani who will be acting as supervisors and, as such, shall be responsible for the general safety and wellbeing of the participants whilst away from the Rock.

The Award and the participants wish to thank them, and many others, for all the time they have spent over the years in getting the participants ready for the qualifying AJ and for accompanying them on this venture.

For more information about the AJ or the Open Award Centre, please contact Mouetaz Ziani, OAC Chairman chairman@oacdukes.com or, for more information about the Award in Gibraltar, contact the National Director, Michael Pizzarello on 20051971 or email michael.pizzarello@thedukes.gi

The Award is an exciting youth development programme open to young people between the ages of 14 and 24. Check us out on www.thedukes.gi