At the beginning of March 2007 I travelled with 7 other people to Bangladesh on my first Meet the People Tour.

I had been working at Saddle Skedaddle for a year and a half and I thought I knew the itinerary for the trip and the producer groups quite well before I left for Bangladesh but the trip turned out to be full of surprises for me. It is all of the personal touches and the people that we met that really made this trip a fantastic experience and one that I will remember forever.



Shamim was the perfect host for us, his love of Bangladesh was infectious and his care for us throughout the tour was perfectly pitched so that we felt really safe but still had the freedom to explore Bangladesh for ourselves. Everyone we met was full of fearless enthusiasm to talk to us and tell us about themselves and their family, the friendliness was overwhelming and the giggles we had amongst ourselves and with everyone we met made the tour thoroughly enjoyable.

One of the main reasons for me going on this tour above all of the others was the number and range of projects and producer groups that we were able to visit in such a short space of time. I was impressed at the size of Aarong but even more so by the commitment of those at smaller organisations like Swajan. We actually fitted in visits to 7 different organisations involved in fair trade into our trip but as each were so different I felt I learnt something new at each one and didn’t felt overwhelmed by any of them, I loved having the opportunity to talk to the workers individually.

I had some wonderful conversations with Shamim about fair trade and development within Bangladesh and he helped to simplify and show us examples of some of the more complex issues. Shamim reinforced the idea of challenging the more accepted views of development and one of my favourite quotes of the trip was “GDP can’t measure this happiness” as we walked past a group of boys playing in the fields. Bangladesh may be ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world, but I met some of the happiest and friendliest people I have ever seen.

Each night after spending the day working in the fields, the farmers in Tangail meet together for an hour or so before returning home for dinner. On our first night in Tangail we were invited to join them and watch them perform for us and each other. As well as traditional folk songs the farmers sang about their farms and the wildlife and the change that they had made to convert to organic farming. We had learnt earlier in the day how important organic farming is for the community, but I don’t think that it was until we saw the farmers sing about their farming methods with such passion that we really understood the reality of those choices to the farmers and ther families and the importance of organisations like UBINIG who support the farmers and empower them to make these choices for themselves.

This trip proved to me that the itineraries that we write for these trips can never do them justice because you can never schedule for all of the magical moments that come along when you least expect them. After meeting Shamim and his friends I can be confident that there will be many of them to come as it was their tireless enthusiasm that allowed us to experience all of the extra wonders of Bangladesh and enjoy the kindness of the people that we met.

As you always do on these trips, we all took hundreds of photos and because I am not a great photographer I think I’ll use most of them in the future to spark memories from my trip, but do have a look here in our gallery for some of the best shots so that you have an idea of what we saw and the people that we met.

This is a really short account of my trip to Bangladesh, but I hope it gives you a taste of what it was like. If you would like to see more information about our tour in Bangladesh please click here, but if you would like to hear more about the trip or if you have any questions I would be more than happy to chat to you about the tour. Please feel free to give me a call in the office on 0191 2651110.

Here are a few comments from some of my fellow travellers on the trip:

"Having travelled quite widely, particularly in Asia, I had no special expectations of Bangladesh. I went there because I wanted to find out more about the practicalities of Fair Trade, and the Meet the People programme there seemed especially well focused on that. In the event the country itself was an unexpected gem, the people lovely, open and friendly, and our guide, himself a leading light in the handicrafts industry out there, superbly qualified to show us around. The introduction to the farmers of Bangladesh was a special bonus: I had not realised from the brochure just how much we would learn in Tangail about farming in that rich alluvial land of river deltas. The Bangladesh Tourist Board, with a nice touch of ironic humour, advises you to "Come to Bangaldesh before the tourists arrive". I would second that."

”It was a lot more than a holiday”

“I have never eaten as well or as much as I did in Bangladesh “

“Shamim did much more than provide us with a service, he gave us his friendship. Meeting him was at least as much of a highlight of the trip as visiting any of the places he took us to see. From the moment we arrived he made it clear that his job was to make sure we all had a really good time and he couldn’t have done more to make sure that we did”