Opportunities for women to learn to swim were almost non-existent in Sri Lanka. Culture in Sri Lanka prevents mixed gender bathing in public pools that do exist and requires women to swim in the sea in full clothing. The 2005 Indian Ocean Tsunami took many lives of women and children that could have been saved had they known how to swim. After the tsunami, Christine Fonfe felt that it was time to shift cultural narratives around swimming. Girlie Ganage is among a group of women learning to swim and notes that, before the tsunami, women swimming would have been almost unthinkable. Now, there are groups aiming to make swimming lessons a part of the national school curriculum. Photo credit: Tom Parker
