Different Strokes

While perusing the blog with random brown faces (http://brownpeople.livejournal.com/) - I came across a story that justified the time I spent lurking.

Women Without Borders taught women in South India how to swim after the tsunami, using sport as a means to save lives AND empower women. Archana Kapoor directed a film about the swim project called "Different Stokes". I'm excited to see it... hopefully it will give me the motivation I need at work.

13 months after the Tsunami, Women without Borders started a unique project in south India: Swimming training for girls and women. Never again should women die if they have a chance to reach the shore.

„After the Tsunami our lives changed totally. We still suffer from the effects of this catastrophe; many people are traumatized and fear the water. Projects like this give us confidence and help us to deal with the water again. A lot of people died in the Tsunami, we all have the fear that something like that wil happen again. People have to know how to swim, especially mothers to be able to rescue their children.“ (Selvi, 25, participant)

The film „Different Strokes,“ that documents the effort of Women Without Borders to teach women along the southern Indian coast to swim, is also a document that shows the courage of women to reach new shores, to override borders and to take their life into their own hands.

Read the story and find out how to get the video about the swim initiative here.