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By Kim Harrisberg, Thomson Reuters Foundation
7 Min Read Charity trains women to swim and farm natural sponges Sponges are climate-resilient and fetch good prices
JAMBIANI, Zanzibar, Aug 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nasir Hassan Haji never thought of herself as a farmer or a swimmer, but as she waded into Zanzibar’s blue waters with goggles pulled over her headscarf to examine her floating sponge farm, she realised she had surprised herself by becoming both.
Alongside 12 other women in Jambiani village on the Indian Ocean coast, Haji has come to rely on the climate-resilient, natural sponges bobbing on thick ropes where they grow for months before the women harvest, clean and sell them to shops and tourists.
311 Nasir Hassan Haji holds up her harvested sponges in a bag from her home in Jambiani in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Thomson Reuters Foundation
JAMBIANI, Zanzibar, August 4
Nasir Hassan Haji never thought of herself as a farmer or a swimmer, but as she waded into Zanzibar s blue waters with goggles pulled over her headscarf to examine her floating sponge farm, she realised she had surprised herself by becoming both.
Alongside 12 other women in Jambiani village on the Indian Ocean coast, Haji has come to rely on the climate-resilient, natural sponges bobbing on thick ropes where they grow for months before the women harvest, clean and sell them to shops and tourists.