Travelling made better for women, by women

A traveller dresses up in a sari for the perfect photo-op at Saint Martin’s island, with the setting sun in the background and waves crashing at her feet. PHOTO COURTESY: WANDER WOMAN

There are many words for it. "Wanderlust", "hodophile" or "bhromon-pipashu" -- are only some of the things we call those of us who harbour a strong desire to travel.

But then not all of us get to tick-off all the entries from our wish-lists. Travelling isn't as easy as it seems. There's scheduling, paperwork, savings and a lot of other variables to take care of before one can travel.

But there's another factor that's perhaps a little different from the others -- gender.

Even in 2020, it's difficult for a woman to travel. Stigma is there -- "Women can't travel alone" or "Women can't travel without a male guardian accompanying them" -- and so is fear for personal safety.

This is where Wander Women comes in. It's a travel organisation that facilitates travelling for Bangladeshi women. It's services and solutions are specifically crafted for its female customers.

"University years got me into travelling. I used to attend a lot of international competitions, and I developed a taste out of these trips," said Sabira Mehrin, founder and lead traveller at Wander Women.

"But it was hurdle as I graduated and joined the workforce," Mehrin continued. "I had to do everything on my own -- from arranging funds to finding suitable locations."

"Sensing a gap in the travelling market, I decided to start Wander Women. My friends encouraged me to start small, first with a Facebook group and scale up from there," she recounted the early days. "Thankfully, I listened! Since the first post on social media back in 2017, we never had to look back!"

Something of a by-product that comes out of Wander Women's services is how it provides female travellers with a network of like-minded travelmates. This acquaintance comes in handy when friends and family cannot match schedule.

Besides offering interesting travel destinations, Wander Woman also designs unique plans for its members. There's a petty currency exchange programme, international sim-card exchange facilities, travel cost pre-installment payment options, and more, Mehrin told this correspondent.

"The basic idea is to make travel as easy and as convenient as possible," she said.

But then things hit a stumbling block after the coronavirus put a halt to all its initiatives for most of 2020. However, rather than being bogged down by this, the organisation heard the call of the time and focused on doing philanthropic work, like arranging donations for pandemic affected families. It also undertook another project where over 7,500 women were provided self-defense training for free.

After seven long months of closure, the company finally resumed operations in November. In the meantime, Mehrin won the highly acclaimed Diana Award, but she says she couldn't have done it without the country's people.

"After all, this is an initiative that originated in beautiful Bangladesh," she said.

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