Ocean Women

Established in April 2022

We protect what we love, and we love what we know. Yet, in many places, women and girls lack equal opportunities to access ocean recreation - swimming, snorkelling, diving, surfing - and get to know and love the ocean. To address this, we launched Ocean Women. Ocean Women's purpose is to make the transformational benefits of the ocean available to all women and girls, all over the world, for years to come.

Watch the video below to learn about our 2023 pilot programme, run in collaboration with Salted Ventures Swimmers in the Maldives.

DONATE TO THE OCEAN WOMEN PROJECT

Enas as snorkel guide in Makunudhoo_2021_Credit S Hilbourne MT 2.JPG

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

268

people from 20 countries consulted for local expertise on ocean access.

7

SSI Swimming & Snorkelling instructors trained (5 female) from 3 Maldivian islands.

111

women and children taught swimming in 14 one-month programmes ran by the newly-trained instructors.

64

women and children joined environmental education and snorkelling field trips.

13

women and children participated in a national swimming festival and surf/skateboarding sessions.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Globally, 68% of women can’t swim, compared to 43% of men (Lloyd’s Register Foundation, 2019). In the island nation of the Maldives, some women and girls are:

5x more likely than men to be unable to swim.
10x more likely than men to have never snorkelled (and seen local underwater life).

This is common in many tropical coastal communities. Reasons vary but include fear, societal stigmas, lack of role models, and lack of safe spaces.

Through our collaborative experiences working with Affiliate Projects in over 20 countries, we have learnt that to sustainably protect the biodiversity that mobulid rays depend upon, coastal communities must develop and lead conservation initiatives that work for them. In many tropical coastal communities, women are important stewards of highly biodiverse yet vulnerable environments that people rely upon for food, coastal protection, livelihoods and culture.

Being able to swim is imperative for enabling access to the dominant environment and a core recreational, educational, and economic space. Ocean experiences are transformative: they can improve health and well-being, inspire environmental stewardship, create job opportunities, and foster conservation leadership.

The Maldives is 99% ocean; most people live metres from the sea. Learning to swim is essential for equipping people to pursue ocean-based careers:

“We live in a large ocean state, and our survival depends on a healthy marine ecosystem. Showing people what they have in their backyard is key to fostering environmentally conscious individuals passionate about protecting the ocean.”

— Maeesha Mohamed, Maldives Manta Conservation Programme Board Director

Since 2015, our team of educators have taught hundreds of people to swim and snorkel and witness the reefs and megafauna the Maldives is famous for. We have seen many of these people become passionate conservation advocates who strive to make positive changes in their communities.

Through this project, we are expanding our educational endeavours to move towards achieving equality in ocean exploration for women and girls, especially in tropical coastal communities. We’re conducting action-focused multi-national research and trialling a programme to train local leaders who can teach their communities to swim, snorkel and connect to the sea for years to come. Over time, this will come full circle, as ocean-connected women could better protect the valuable ecosystems that both they and species like manta rays depend upon.

In 2026, our research, shared knowledge, and case studies of successful programmes internationally will be shared via an Ocean Connection Strategy, equipping communities with tools to develop local ocean connection programmes, in turn expanding global ocean stewardship.

A Maldivian girl experiences the awe of snorkelling with manta rays in Hanifaru Bay for the first time, during our 2018 Moodhu Madharusaa – Ocean School – programme. © Kaitlyn Zerr

The project team, Flossy and Zuna, with the swimming and snorkelling instructors trained from Rasdhoo, Ukulhas and Fuvahmulah islands. From left: Sambey, Adam, Flossy, Zuna, Shifza, Hudha, Shifaza, Naaz and Azmeena. © Anne-Pinto Rodrigues

Our Vision

Improve opportunities for women and girls to recreationally access and connect to the ocean in tropical coastal communities worldwide.

Objectives

We collaborate with a diverse range of local community groups, organisations, government ministries and universities. Our key aims are to:

(1) Gain an in-depth understanding of gender inequality in recreational ocean access. By learning from people in tropical coastal communities and from initiatives already underway that improve women and girls’ access to ocean recreation.

(2) Collaboratively develop programmes to improve ocean access. Starting with our swim and snorkel instructor training programme in the Maldives.

(3) Create and widely share an ‘Ocean Connection Strategy’. That outlines common barriers, mediators, impacts and learnings and ultimately helps communities and organisations working worldwide to identify, trial and implement solutions that could work for their localities, upscaling ocean access initiatives worldwide.

Project Leader - Flossy Barraud

Flossy is a marine conservationist and educator who led the Manta Trust’s education programmes for over four years, firstly in the Maldives, and then for the core team based in the UK and working with our global network of Affiliate Projects.

Flossy completed her undergraduate in Childhood and Disability Studies, and her master’s degree in Marine Environmental Management. During her masters, she co-designed the Maldives Manta Conservation Programme’s experiential marine education programme and conducted research to analyse the effectiveness of the programme, which identified a significant gender disparity between how much time males and females spent in the sea. This, and subsequent observations and discussions whilst working closely with Maldivian communities, sparked her passion for evidencing this gender disparity and findings ways to overcome it. Flossy is doing a PhD with the University of Plymouth to drive this action-based research forward.

Photo: Anne Pinto-Rodrigues

Maldives project co-leader – Aminath Zoona (Zuna)

Aminath Zoona (Zuna) is the founder of Salted Ventures Swimmers, established in 2019. The swim school caters to students starting from 2 months of age. SVS offers a variety of classes from novice to advanced swim lessons as well as SSI-certified swim instructor courses. A competitive swimmer before embracing motherhood, Zuna’s passion for the ocean was sparked at a young age when her father taught her to swim. In introducing her younger cousins and later her children to swim and snorkel, she found that she had a natural instinct for helping others to stay calm and overcome their fear; this led to her leaving a career in Aviation to pursue her passion. She completed her SSI Swim Instructor Trainer program in 2016 and decided to establish a swimming school combining her passion for the ocean and teaching.

Co-leading this program is a dream come true for Zuna. In educating ocean-minded individuals, she hopes to create a domino effect which will allow equal opportunities to the efforts in protecting the ocean that we love for future generations.

Girls%2Benjoy%2Bseeing%2Bthe%2Breef%2B-%2Bsome%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bfirst%2Btime_Credit_Flossy%2BBarraud_Manta%2BTrust%2B%25283%2529.jpg

TIMELINE OF ACHIEVEMENTS

2022

Conducted community consultations or interviews with 204 Maldivian people across 15 islands to understand local perspectives and co-design the pilot programme.

Partnered with the University of Papua, Molabin Raja Ampat and Women in Ocean Science to explore local ocean access challenges and solutions in West Papua, Indonesia.

Consulted with 64 experts from 20 countries on recreational ocean access.

Flossy and Zuna host a consultation forum in Isdhoo, Maldives

Flossy and Kaitlyn host a seminar at the University of Papua, Indonesia. Projects begin with community consultations and in-depth interviews to understand community desires and ensure programmes of change are co-developed with the community from the outset.

2023: The Pilot Programme, Maldives

Conducted 3-months of swimming lessons with 35 women on Rasdhoo island, Maldives.

Conducted a swimming and snorkelling skills questionnaire with 700 community members from Rasdhoo and Ukulhas islands to understand baseline recreational ocean access.

Co-developed our Maldives pilot programme with three local communities: Rasdhoo, Ukulhas and Fuvahmulah. Trained seven SSI Swimming and Snorkelling Instructors and consistently provided support and mentorship for them to develop swimming and snorkelling programmes for their communities, creating sustained change.

o Five female instructors in Rasdhoo island have since created the Rasdhu Blue Tide swimming club where they have run 12x 1-month swimming programmes and six snorkelling and environmental education fieldtrips, teaching over 65 women and children to swim and snorkel. This creates lasting impact for their community and a sustainable business model, providing income for the instructors.

o One instructor in Fuvahmulah, partnered with the Fuvahmulah Surf School and Fuvahmulah Surfing Association, has run two learn-to-swim programmes for 20 children, equipping them with skills needed to learn to surf.

We are conducting longitudinal research to learn from challenges and successes of this pilot, with an aim to develop it with more communities in the future.

Aminath Shifza, a swim instructor trained during the 2023 pilot programme who now leads Rasdhu Blue Tide swim club, teaches girls to swim in Rasdhoo, Maldives.

Students of the Rasdhu Blue Tide swim club travel to Kuramathi resort for a monthly environmental education and snorkelling field trip.

2024

Ongoing mentorship and expansion of Maldives projects.

Organised try-surfing, skateboarding and diving sessions for swimmers and instructors at Rasdhu Blue Tide.

Interview research to learn from local female experts running swimming, snorkelling, surfing, diving and water connection programmes in West Papua, São Tomé and Príncipe, St. Lucia, Mozambique, Madagascar, and a Māori community in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Expanding recreational opportunities: a swimming instructor tries surfing at a session hosted by Aloha Ufaa and the Maldives Surfing Association.

Expanding recreational opportunities: girls try skate boarding at a session hosted by Aloha Ufaa and the Maldives Surfing Association.

2025+

We’ll bring the shared knowledge of the hundreds of people we’ve learnt from internationally together, disseminating it via academic publications, videos, and our Ocean Connection Strategy.

Expand successful pilot programmes to new communities and mentor similar initiatives worldwide. For example, we’ve advised MADA Megafauna in Madagascar on best practice for developing a similar programme locally. Following this, they began community swimming lessons in 2024.

In the Media

NIKKEI ASIA - PROGRAM SEEKS TO GET MALDIVIAN WOMEN INTO THE SWIM OF THINGS

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - AMINATH ZOONA GETS WOMEN INTO THE SWIM OF THINGS

THE GUARDIAN – OCEAN WOMEN

THE EDITION - OCEAN WOMEN: EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH OCEAN CONSERVATION

SHARK NEWS – EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH OCEAN OPPORTUNITIES (page 31-37)

SAVE OUR SEAS FOUNDATION MAGAZINE – CULTIVATING CURIOSITY (page 94-97)

WOMEN IN OCEAN SCIENCE – AN INTERVIEW WITH FLOSSY BARRAUD

GIRLS THAT SCUBA – EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH OCEAN OPPORTUNITIES

5+Students+discover+the+reef_Credit_Flossy+Barraud_Manta+Trust.jpg.jpg

Photos from the field

Sponsors & Partners

Principal Supporters

Supporters

In-Kind Support

Research Partners

Project Partners

Thank you to everybody who has donated to this project and to related crowdfunding campaigns.

This project is all about collaboration and co-learning. We are always on the lookout for new partners and collaborators - financial and otherwise. If you want to know more or would like to chat about the project for any reason, please get in touch with Flossy: flossy.barraud@mantatrust.org.