Spreading Wings
I remember I spent my childhood looking at beautiful photographs in the Atlas or encyclopedia wanting to travel the whole world. Thankfully my parents have been avid travelers and hence, we used to go on vacations, and that is how, I suppose, my love for travelling grew stronger. Later, when I got into university – IBA, I focused on exploring opportunities to travel beyond our country. In 2014, I along with my team got selected for a global business competition and was asked to present our idea in USA. However, my family couldn’t trust or show confidence sending in their daughter to conquer the world. With such pressure, I stayed back and my male team mates flew! We won beating teams from the IVY League but deep inside a woman lost to societal barriers. This victory changed my family’s perception and then they let me fly to Hong Kong with my team mates as National Champion of a business case competition in 2015. After that, I never had to look back.
Over the years, I realized there are more girls out there who wanted to travel but were being restricted due to gender discrimination. This is why I formed a platform known as ‘Wander Woman’
Before Wander Woman, I noticed how most women were reluctant to take charge of their own or family trips. Due to lack of information, it was difficult for many to understand what needed to be done. I have also noticed how travel blogging wasn’t taken seriously or wasn’t in trend in Bangladesh back in 2017. I wanted to change this scenario and work with brands to empower travel blogging.
However, I wasn’t sure how to start such a platform. That’s when a few of my friends suggested I start a Facebook group to interact with female travel enthusiasts. In September 2017, I gathered courage and created the group – Wander Woman to inspire women to travel through my stories. Bit by bit, my little community grew – people started joining and sharing their experiences alongside me. Now Wander Woman has a network of more than 20,000 Bangladeshi women all around the world.
Picture Taken : Hatton, Sri Lanka
“You represent 1% of the Bangladeshi population,” they told me.
Taking Flight
After few months, members wanted to have an opportunity for get-togethers or a meetup but with a bit of fun. Getting so many requests, I planned out an activity day tour with 100 members followed by a domestic trip to Tanguar Haor. After back to back huge responses, we grew more confident to arrange tours out of the country. For all the trips, my main objective was to ensure like-minded travelers, provide safety through information and curate affordable trips.
Wander Woman stands out for its highly screened members and its positive environment as a female community from Bangladesh.
Picture Taken : Borobudur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Apart from organizing trips, Wander Woman has taken several innovative initiatives like – travel merchandise production, peer-to-peer exchange of currency, travel buddy match, fully funded opportunity bulletin and anonymous feedback platform. And we are planning to introduce more interesting projects in the future to assist in arranging travel experience.
Wander Woman is moving beyond the concept of tourism now. We have always focused on working with women-led organizations to connect with the niche network of Wander Woman. I want this platform to be a proper example of women supporting each other through thick and thin because I believe in collaboration, not competition.
Climbing Higher
Since its inception, Wander Woman has inspired thousands of women to travel on their own. Moreover, this community has successfully brought focus on the female travel segment which was not highlighted in a male-dominated tourism industry before. Now more travel entities are working on arranging tours for women and enabling them to have safe trips. This is where I see our success as a trailblazer.
Picture Taken : Hoi An, Vietnam
Through Wander Woman, we want to explore the world and more importantly, our own Bangladesh. I am working on designing trips across the country to discover hidden gems and highlight them. We still haven’t been in touch with government entities but eventually we intend to if given the proper scope. We have recently addressed harassment issues faced by female travelers in Bangladesh through a ground breaking case. Now we are working on providing self defense training to female travelers to ensure safety and build confidence. Furthermore, we are currently empowering underprivileged women to become tour guides which will develop skill and provide employment. I must say, all these initiatives are funded from my savings as we have just focused on building the community first, profits comes second. This is why, Wander Woman is now looking for potential investment to help it grow and expand in the near future.
Sabira is working relentlessly with a team in hopes of developing a website for ‘Wander Woman’ and charting down upcoming travel destinations as you read this.
