Sarah Begum Speaker | Creative & Lifestyle & Women & Humanities

Sarah Begum

Exploring the world, studying tribes and different ways of life whilst investigating current affairs and making a humanitarian effort to help people along the way.

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical, Sarah Begum is an Immersive Investigative Journalist, Anthropologist-Explorer and Public Speaker. Sarah has been exploring the world, studying tribes and different ways of life whilst investigating current affairs and making a humanitarian effort to help people along the way through her work.

In 2010, Sarah travelled deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, where she lived with the Huaorani tribe and immersed in their way of life, hunting with warriors, gathering with women whilst investigating into the impacts of oil exploitation on their land. On this expedition, Sarah was made Queen and married to a warrior to create an alliance and send their message about protecting their land through her film. Sarah became the youngest person to make a first film in the Amazon jungle at the age of 21 with a premiere of “Amazon Souls” held at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. The film has been endorsed by rainforest charities Sky Rainforest Rescue, Rainforest Alliance, celebrity Adventurer Bear Grylls and has released on various platforms worldwide.

Sarah’s achievements include winning the “Spirit of Adventure Award” from the Captain Scott Society 2014 for her next big expedition, “Life In The Darien Gap”, shortlisted by the SES (Scientific Exploration Society) Explorer of the year Award 2014, Finalist of the National Geographic Explorer Award, Finalist of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship Award 2014, highly commended by The Adventure Fund in association with Sidetracked magazine.

Sarah has survived in some of the most dangerous cities in the world. In Caracas, Venezuela, Sarah worked as a Broadcast Journalist, presenting international current affairs for an English TV channel whilst surviving the city. She returned to the murder capital of the world to film undercover in Latin America’s largest and most dangerous slums and to investigate how social, economic and political issues have impacted life in Caracas. Sarah released her report, “Surviving Caracas” just before the elections in Venezuela in December 2015.

Sarah was featured in The Guardian as part of the San Miguel Rich List 2016 for enriching explorers and named “world’s top 17 trailblazer” with an exhibition of her photos at Somerset House. She was published in Marie Claire in 2017 to share her life and work and has just returned from Ghana where she was working as a Broadcast Journalist/TV Presenter for GHOne TV producing and presenting special features for the news, live reports and TV documentaries on stories ranging from social issues, adventures, the environment and undercover assignments. The stories ranged from investigating life in the most dangerous slums of Ghana, being appointed the first to fly on the news for the Kwahu Paragliding Festival to fishing and farming in the rural villages to capture life and their expectations of the new government.

Sarah partnered with Russ Malkin to set up The Adventuress Club, a platform to connect, share, empower and encourage women through the world of adventure. She has delivered a TEDx talk on the environment in Ghana, The Rotary Club in the UK and for oil directors from major oil companies around the world in Spain and she was a panelist at the Belfast Media Festival 2016 framed as ‘The Future Storyteller’. As a public speaker, Sarah aims to inspire people to live their dreams no matter how impossible it may seem whilst teaching them about the world through her adventures touching on anthropology, exploration, film, environment, human rights, women’s rights and other global topics rooted in her work.

Testimonials from Teachers

"It was a great session! Sarah's PPT was really engaging and the questions at the end showed how much the students gained from the talk. I'd definitely recommend her as a speaker."

– Katherine McLoughlin, Teacher i/c of KS5 English, Chelsea Academy

“Sarah it was a wonderful honour having you at our Nari Diganta International Women’s day event on 8 March 2015 as a speaker and participant on our panel of successful British Bengali women. The team at Nari diganta and audience most appreciated your work in that it brought home to women your ability to break free of stereotypical, sexual, cultural, religious bigotry to explore adventurously and achieve success as a woman. We would be pleased to have your presence again in order to empower and encourage women to do the same.”

– International Women’s Day 2015, Piya Mayenin, Legal Affairs Secretary, Nari Diganta UK

“Sarah came to visit our sixth form in October to talk about and screen her Amazon documentary. The film completely surpassed my already high expectations – absorbing, heartfelt and humorous. A class act of documentary film-making. Sarah has engaging, warm and perhaps above all as interested in her audience as she was interesting. The time she spent with a group of students at lunch after the lecture – the most popular lunch of the lecture series’ in the last 2 years – and the effort she made to question and advise each of them is a testament to her passion for people. I think she left all the girls better informed and more inspired than before her lecture.”

– Godolphin & Latymer School,Ciara Morris, Sixth Form Administrator & CAS Co-Ordinator

"Sarah Begum is such a passion driven, engaging speaker we were fortunate to have our TEDxAccra stage. Her talk, 'Dreams are made of Action' was one of the best talks that was presented on the day. Her passion for environmental issues was clearly defined and her session was very educative. She's the best i've ever worked with."

– Daniel Kpabi, TEDx

"Sarah was one of the keynote speakers at our 2017 Rotary District Conference as part of the “Spirit of Adventure” plenary session and did not disappoint. She engaged and enthralled the audience and her tale did not just fit in with the theme of the session but also some of the ideals of Rotary and that of protecting our environment. Sarah’s passion and enthusiasm about the people she has encountered and the places she has been to was clear to see, as was her concerns for them which struck a chord with those present at her talk. I am sure following her talk, Rotarians in our district would be willing to work with such a like minded person as Sarah on some of her future projects"

– Darren Hands, Rotary SW Peninsula (UK)

"Sarah was great, and the girls have already asked to have her back!"

– Dr R Barrand, Director of Communications and Marketing, Roedean School