Keep Women Safe on WorldPackers
My friend Neva & myself (Madalyn) signed up for a volunteer experience through the popular travel app called "Worldpackers" home to thousands of hosts all over the world and hundreds of thousands of young nomad volunteers looking for educational, fun, and new experiences that allow them to travel on a budget in exchange for work.
We signed up for a job promoted as "Explore the Mediterranean on a Sailing Yacht" which explains itself as a kite & windboarding school. The Male host in his 40s had originally asked for "Female Only" volunteers that don't come in "Couples / Partnerships" but has since changed the ad, most likely as a result of the recent allegations.
There were 3 women staying on the boat previous to our arrival, and we collectively felt sexualized & uncomfortable by the host within 48 hours of the two of us "working on the boat". He made racist comments towards people on the boat & people of color, he made derogatory comments about women & constantly brought up oral sex, his strong sexual desires (which he claimed were numbed by his heavy drinking), womens bodies, and even made suggestive comments about child pornography. He put his hands on several women, usually grabbing them on their hips, butt, waist, and even feet. He would pull down his pants and pee right in front of all the women into the ocean with no warning, and also showered naked on the back of the boat even though there were 4 accessible private showers and toilets on the boat.
He also suggested I should get cancer "one day" after making it known that my own mother fought aggressive cancer for 2 hard years of her life, a topic that is sensitive and emotional for me to this day.
He entered "private" female rooms in the middle of the night to ask if he could sleep in their bed, and when told no he called them the "r-word", he turned on the boat in the middle of the night without alerting the female crew and we woke up not knowing where we were or where we were sailing to. He drank heavily and passed out drunk when we were sailing in the evening, leaving a 19 year old volunteer to swerve the boat around an island & a fish farm in the pitch black.
After addressing these behaviors 5 days into our experience as a group, he made the decision "for his legal protection" to kick Neva & myself off the boat because he felt (and i quote) "Life is too short to be around sensitive people", and dumped us in a random town next to no public transport 2 weeks before our original end date. The 3 women who were allowed to stayed felt unsafe and followed us off of the boat just hours later and the following 2 days we spent together safely, processing the trauma of what we have been through.
We have contacted World Packers about the host, as we feel no female is safe in this experience with this man, and that this largely-used travel app should not be promoting a predator and a oppressor to such a diverse community. They have done nothing to help us besides a small "compensation" and the ad is still on the app to this day. This petition is created in hoping we can have our loved ones and fellow travelers sign to protect us and themselves and other women across the world.
Madalyn Denniston & Neva Parsons Contact the author of the petition