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nspired by a dream to save more people suffering from Lupus, 10 Indonesian women plan to climb a mountain in Ecuador in a campaign called “Equatorial Peaks for Lupus” to spread awareness of the importance of fighting the dangerous autoimmune disease.

The female climbers, led by 46-year-old psychologist Ami Saragih, intend to conquer two Ecuadorian volcanoes: Mount Cayambe (5,790 meters) and Mount Chimborazo (6,300 meters) from Jan. 15 to 31.

“This disease is a lifelong struggle. So, we need to pay more attention to the importance of fighting the disease,” Ami told a press conference.

The expedition would hopefully encourage more global financial aid for helping people with Lupus, especially those from low income families, she said.

Despite prolonged nationwide efforts, Lupus cases have significantly increased during the last five years due to lack of knowledge on causal factors and methods for dealing with this dangerous disease, which mostly affects women.

According to the Indonesian Lupus Foundation (YAI), the number of people with Lupus in Indonesia reached 10,314 in 2010, increasing from 9,892 in 2009 and 8,693 in 2008.

“Continuous attention and support are needed to keep patients’ spirit up,” YAI Director Tiara Savitri told journalists, adding that with the Ecuadorian expedition, people with Lupus, including herself, would understand that they were not alone.

Ami will lead a team of nine senior climbers: Amalia Yunita, Veronica, Diah Bisono, Miranda Wiemar, Tejasari, Dwiastuti Soenardi, Heni Juhaeni, Imas Emi Sufraeni and Myrnie Zachraini Tamin.

Apart from Mount Cayambe and Chimborazo, the Equatorial Peaks for Lupus expedition saga also includes two other excursions to Mount Jaya Wijaya (4,862 meters) in Papua and the Uhuru Peak (5,893 meters) at Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. These first two expeditions were carried out in 2009.

The upcoming expedition should make the climbers the first Indonesians to conquer three of the highest equatorial peaks in three continents.

Mount Cayambe (5,790 meters), located north of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, is the nation’s third highest mountain and the only equatorial mountain in the world with permanent snow and ice. Quito itself is actually located two dozen miles south of the equator, but it has an average daily temperature of only 20 degree Celcius due to its elevation.

Ami said that all of her team members had prepared themselves to reach the summits of Mt. Cayambe and Mt. Chimborazo.

“I hope there will be wider awareness of the importance of fighting Lupus once our ‘Three Equatorial Peaks’ mission is finished,” said Dian Bisono, an entrepreneur who joined the expedition.

Tiara said people with Lupus would not show a clear set of signs that could be seen by other people. It might take a while for the disease to be accurately diagnosed because the symptoms are often similar to other diseases, she said.

People with Lupus have defective immune systems. “Instead of aliens such as bacteria, viruses or germs, their own immune systems attack healthy tissue,” Tiara said, adding that a severe form of Lupus called Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) could badly affect many parts of the body, including the skin, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and brain.

However, Lupus is still manageable even though it is a genetic and hormonal disease. (ebf)