On Friday 5th March 2021 I attended a UN Women's International Women's Day breakfast. Inbetween feeling proud, angry, inspired, crying, needing a hug and giving hugs - I first heard about the Trek for Rights. Also at the event was my dear friend Sharyn. Both of us had that feeling we have to do more, we knew that we had to do this trek and do it together. Instantly we just said YES! We had no idea of the cost, how long we had to trek for or any details really, but we said YES!

We will be stepping out of our comfort zone on a physically demanding and emotionally challenging journey, trekking for 4-days through Cradle Mountain National Park in support of Rohingya refugee women and girls in Bangladesh in October 2022 and need YOUR support.

COVID-19 has stopped us in our tracks but the need to support our world’s most vulnerable has not, which is why I've joined the Trek for Rights 2022. Today, more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees live in the largest refugee camp in the world, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Crowded living conditions and limited access to sanitation and healthcare make Rohingya refugee women and girls living in these camps particularly at risk of COVID-19 and its shadow pandemic of violence. 

One of the 900,00 women is Cox`s Bazar is Minara. Minara Begums story reflects the reality of hundreds of thousands of women caught in one of the worlds fastest growing refugee crises. Minara is just 24 years old, and she along with her family traversed unimaginable hardships to find safety in the Coxs Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh. But safety is still a relative term for her. On her list of priorities are income-generating opportunities, better food and education for her daughter, and a secure place to live when the rains come. Since attending UN Womens Centre at the camp, Minara has learnt to tailor and is building a social network as an outreach worker. She encourages other women and girls to come to UN Womens Centres to learn, stay safe and build a community. She also helps pregnant women reach relief distribution points and carries relief items for them. She has learned to speak up and now presents the issues of other Rohingya women refugees to the authorities in charge of the day-to-day management of the camp.