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Fisherwomen in tsunami-hit areas are now learning to swim

As part of this project, 35 women from Mamallapuram, a coastal heritage town near Chennai, and about 50 children from coastal hamlets in Chennai are being taught to swim by four trainers from Austria.

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CHENNAI: Most of the fisherwomen in the tsunami-affected villages in Tamil Nadu do not know how to swim. Or so found Women without Borders (WwB), an international NGO, which has been working with fisherwomen in some of the tsunami-hit areas.

And that prompted the NGO to launch the ‘Women swimming into the future’ project. As part of this project, 35 women from Mamallapuram, a coastal heritage town near Chennai, and about 50 children from coastal hamlets in Chennai are being taught to swim by four trainers from Austria. This is one, among other projects undertaken by WwB with focus on sports.

The others include teaching women in Afghanistan to play basketball, and women in Rwanda to play football.

Edit Schlaffer, the founder of WwB, and who also represents Austria in the UN in their Sports for Development and Peace Initiative, explains, “Essential things in life can be learnt through sport; women become more self-confident and develop a better relationship with their bodies. Sport also empowers women.”

Archana Kapoor of the Indian wing of WwB, who is also the publisher of the political news magazine Hardnews, says, “During one of our interactions with the fisherwomen, we realised that most of them, despite being so close to the sea, could not swim. This programme will give them a chance to regain trust in the water, enhance self-esteem through a new skill and experience team empowerment through team-building exercises.”

The project was made possible with cooperation from the Tamil Nadu Tourism department and the state’s Sports Development authority who have given out the pools for the training.

The four Austrain trainers represent the sports division of the Austrian Federal Chancellory, the Austrian Swimming Association, the Austrian Life Saving Federation and the Austrian Youth Red Cross respectively.

Reicht Elke, one of the Austrian Trainers, says, “Although there was a language problem, we managed to teach them through actions and there were also translators to help.”

At first the women were shy of wearing their swimming costumes, Elke recalls. ``But they found a way out; they wrapped their shawls (duppattas) around them. But there were no inhibitions about the water. They enjoyed themselves, and some of them even managed to float for a little while.”

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