Women from different continents come together to travel across Ganges

An expedition of its own kind - a group of celebrated travellers, trekkers and everester women have come together from seven different continents to start a journey through the river Ganges. The team includes Indian everester Krushnaa Patil, who is the second woman to trek to the Mount Everest in 2009. This voyage is not without a purpose, these women want to start a discourse about the scarcity of water globally.

This is the first of a seven-continent, multi-year expedition series titled “Access Water”.   The team is planning on visiting each continent and ending the series with a trip to Antarctica.

Patil, who is the only Indian to be part of this extraordinary group, says that Ganges is a very powerful starting point. “Our culture has immense respect for nature and we consider the Ganga River holy. It's perfect to start,” she says in a report by Business Standard.

She further said about the message they are going to spread, “Apart from students, we will also focus on the women-folk we come across. Women run the households here. If we are able to change the way in which a woman thinks about the river then surely it will have an effect. As the saying goes- educate a woman and you educate the family.”

The team has been organised by Bancroft-Arnesen Explore (BAE) foundation. It is going to inspire and engage millions of people on their way about the benefits of the conservation of water. They want to inspire the future leaders of the world to demand a safe and abundant world with access to clean water for everyone.

“The eight-member team is led by Ann Bancroft- honorary member of the National Women's Hall of Fame of the United States, and Norwegian Liv Arnesen- the first woman in the world to ski solo and unsupported to the South pole,” states Economic Times.

Some of the other partners of BAE are UNESCO, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Google, WAGGGS, Young Pioneers of China, Norwegian Embassy, Percept Profile and Tunheim. This expedition includes a team of eminent women like Marcia Gutierrez of Chile, Krushnaa Patil of India, Lisa te Heuheu of New Zealand, Cindy Jiaojiao Hu of China, Olfat Haider of Israel and Kim Smith of South Africa.

Arnesen is of the opinion that the aim of this expedition is to find solutions rather than digging the problem deeper.

“We have a long term vision. We hope it turns into a movement. We want young people, from all backgrounds, to come together and to co-operate for solving environmental and world problems. Water is a wonderful way for us to talk about environment. We are excited about journeying down the Ganges. It's intimidating, we don't know how it will go,” says Arnesen.

Picture Credit- Indiansnews.com