Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Hun’na: A community platform for female athletes and adventurers in Oman

1574996
1574996
minus
plus

An adventurer and athlete herself, she not only had stories of her own but knew of women in Oman who were adventurers themselves, breaking records and crossing both social and athletic boundaries! HUN’na was formed with a hope to create a platform that would not only share these stories but also help build a community of female athletes and adventurers in Oman.


HUN’na was founded by the owner Noorulhuda al Mandhari in September 2020 to tell the stories of Omani female adventurers and athletes and showcase their achievements on an online platform.


In the summer of 2020, Noorulhuda started her Instagram page, then with the help of her friends, she created HUN’na, where Mohammed al Ghuraibi who is a distinguished content creator designed the logo and Muna al Shidhani, an adventurer and photographer who took the launching photos for the platform. Wisal al Rashdi who is a tour guide & also promotes female guiding in Oman joined shortly as a partner in networking and collaborations.


Within a month, “we found ourselves discovering women who were on different adventures such as Suhaila al Kindi who decided to walk from Muscat to Dhofar starting from Omani Women’s Day and arriving on National Day to promote awareness in preserving the environment. We joined part of her trip to experience and tell her story.


Followed directly by Anisa al Raisi and Major Natalie’s for the YallaGo expedition who crossed Oman in a straight line from Musandam to Mirbat” said Noorulhuda


She added, “We found ourselves planning visits to women and athletic events almost every week, The strength we have experienced and the resilience from these women is truly remarkable.”


HUN’na and YallaGo


When the Yallago expedition started on November 18, we had just finished covering Suhaila’s successful journey and excited to move onto the next adventure. We attended the opening launch of YallaGo in Outwardbound and bid farewell to the ladies but that was only the start of the journey. HUN’na covered their story on our Instagram story for the duration of their expedition (46 days) and joined them at various times on their expedition.


Their first visit was during their stay in Al Buraimi. A challenging moment of their expedition, They joined the YallaGo team where they climbed a tough mountain and took more than 24 hours to get back to the camp safely. Noorulhuda said, “we were able to show our viewers what happens behind the scenes and how the support team deals with difficult situations. After our first visit, we kept in close contact with their team and covered their journey on our platform. We also decided we wanted to visit the ladies in their last leg of the expedition and experience walking the final kilometres with them in Mirbat.”


Dhofar visit and locating local Women


Major Natalie had an injury during the empty quarter crossing and had to leave the expedition meaning Anisa was left to cross the remaining two weeks on her own. HUN’na’s team was determined to keep the spirits up and decided to join Anisa at the finish line.


Noorulhuda said, “This also got us wondering about the women in Dhofar and their involvement in adventure and sports. Instantly, Wisal began her research and for two weeks she continued looking for women in the industry and was saddened when she realized that the achievements of a lot of these women were undocumented nor filmed because of both lack of interest and cultural constraints.


Not giving up hope, the team finally got in touch with a woman called Tufool Ajzoon who manages the Female Salalah handball team, and where we got extremely excited & hopeful to know they do exist.


When the HUN’na team met up with these women, they seemed to be both excited and intrigued as they had never really had other organisations interested in them or their work.


The first met up with an adventure women team and their leader Khair Zaad who organised a beautiful short hike to Wadi Darbat, where we got to meet some of the members of the team.


Although reluctant to be filmed or photographed, throughout the hike the women shared their stories, stories, struggles, their life in Dhofar and truly understood the purpose of the group.


Noorulhuda realised that the group wasn’t formed for their love of adventures and exercise only but these women felt strength with having each other and for them the outdoors was an escape from the stresses and challenges that they face in their everyday lives., she said, “It is seen as a very unusual sport as women in Dhofar don’t generally spend time alone outdoors or even exercise.


We were touched by their stories and told them that with their permission we wanted to share their existence for the first time online.” Since women have started their adventure group on Instagram — @himam_dhofar.


After this, they met with the handball team. Although it was amazing for the team to see this team come together, but not too long after the reality of everything came forth. Noorulhuda shared with us, she said, “We were surprised to see the girls saying that they had to leave. At first, we thought the practice was over but it turns out the lights don’t get turned on for them and that was just the start of what we saw. The resources given to these girls were very limited. They had very old balls and DIY cones (water bottles with sand in them) that the team made and used. Their uniforms were given to them during a tournament on a loan basis but they decided to keep them because they don’t have uniforms. But despite everything, all of the challenges faced we loved the team’s persistence and their athletic enthusiasm!”


They train every week and when the outdoor space isn’t given to them they train in a public park or beach. They never skip practice. The girls were strong both physically and mentally and we could see their passion for this sport.


The HUN’na team throughout their journey were also being supported by well-wishers, “We got privileged to be sponsored for our stay by Anantara Al Baleed Resort for two nights as they wanted to support our platform and our cause. We had a lovely lantern experience and a great outdoor yoga experience too! (Honestly best breakfast buffet we ever had in a hotel in Oman). We would like to thank their staff for being very supportive during our stay!”, Thanked Noorulhuda.


What’s next to HUN’na? Noorulhuda told us, she said, “We are currently working on covering more stories and expeditions. We will also be exploring different regions and looking for women who are involved in adventures and sports and sharing their existence & contributions on our platform. We found that with a little moral support we are making a huge difference in encouraging local women to compete and to experience life differently. We hope that this platform inspires females to achieve more in the field of adventure and sports. We want the world to know that they exist and that their stories will be told.”


 


BY TITASH CHAKRABORTY


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon