BAMYAN - A group of schoolchildren in Bamyan city joined community elders and United Nations staff over the weekend for an annual hike to the top of the Kushkaq Mountains.

Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this year’s Peace Trek is the third annual trek in this central highlands province since 2009.

The trek on 23 September started at the foot of the Kushkaq mountains, from Qabre Zaghak to Chap Qolak villages, and climbed to the fringes of the towering Koh-e Baba mountains.

Trekking with the schoolchildren from the surrounding villages were community leaders from the Koh-e Baba Biosphere Reserve Mountain Protected Area, members of Journey to Smile and International Youth Volunteers, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), UN Mine Action (MACCA) and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), among others.

UNEP’s Post Conflict and Disaster Management Branch has a poverty-alleviating and disaster-risk-reducing project in the area.

By UNAMA Bamyan