SUITSUIT INSPIRED BY | Rose founded Coral Catch on Gili Air

Gili Air immediately felt like home to Rose. She has now been living there for ten years with her husband and two daughters. A few years ago, she founded Coral Catch, an organisation that teaches local women to swim, dive, and care for and protect coral reefs. We had the privilege of interviewing her about her journey and this special foundation – read her story in this blog. 

You've been living on Gili Air for a while now; how did your story begin? 

“The plan was to travel through Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka for three months and then return to my home and job in The Netherlands. My first destination was Indonesia, where I met an Italian woman who took me to the Gili Islands. 

Although Lombok was my first choice of destination, she asked me to come with her to Gili Air. It instantly felt like home, and I completely abandoned the rest of my travel plans so I could stay here.” 

How did you build your life here? 

“At first, I returned to the Netherlands for a few months to save some money. Eventually, due to a company reorganisation, I was able to take voluntary redundancy and then started freelancing for the same company. I tried working remotely from Gili Air, but it wasn't easy to do that ten years ago. 

I quickly realised I couldn’t earn enough income at the time, so I started looking for other options. I began working as a diving instructor, so I decided to rent a room at Villa Nangka. It was here that I met a wonderful man, who is now my husband and the father of our two children. 

After a few months, the owner of Villa Nangka decided to sell the property, just as I was seeking a way to earn more income. It felt like the perfect opportunity, so my then boyfriend (now husband) and I managed to raise the funds and eventually bought it, which allowed us to rent out the rooms again – this time as a hotel.” 

You eventually started organising holidays to Gili Air. How did that come about? 

“I always wanted to do something good for the world and have fun at the same time, but, of course, I also had to make a living. I wanted to combine those three things. One evening, I was out with my friends and we started sharing our biggest dreams. A few drinks later, we said to each other: ‘how amazing would it be if you could create a holiday for people who are interested in marine biology and who want to give something back to the world.’  

A friend of mine, a marine biologist, said that it might be interesting for a lot of people in the field to gain experience this way. My then boyfriend agreed, as he thought there would be enough interest from people with a sense of purpose who wanted to go diving. Luckily, he’s pretty handy, so he set up a website, and after three months, we got our first booking. 

Two years after we started, disaster struck in the form of a massive earthquake. We lost everything: our home, our villas, and our income. It took us a year to rebuild our lives and our business. Just when we thought we could finally start anew, six months later we had to close our doors again due to COVID, and once again our income disappeared.” 

And that’s when Coral Catch came to life? 

“Yes, a friend sent me a link to a grant from the United Nations for sustainable projects. At that time, my daughter was only five days old, and I had plenty of time to think while breastfeeding. The question, ‘how can I secure that funding?’ kept running through my mind. There were already so many initiatives to protect coral reefs, and those were much bigger than what we were doing at the time. 

Then, in the middle of the night, an idea popped into my head. I woke up my husband and told him we were going to carry out this project solely with local women. That seemed like a really cool idea to me. I’d actually never seen a local woman dive; it was unheard of in Indonesia. 

My husband thought I was crazy and doubted it would ever work. Friends also gave me countless reasons why it wouldn’t succeed. Maybe it was the happy pregnancy hormones, but I was determined to go for it. I worked day and night to make my idea a reality. 

Eventually, we received 150 applications via Facebook, from which we selected four as the pilot group. We made sure that the women didn’t have to pay for anything. They could stay at Villa Nangka, and thankfully, local travel was still allowed during COVID. Before we knew it, we had a second and third group to train.” 

What exactly do these local women learn at Coral Catch? 

“Not only do we support them with their diving training, but we also help them develop skills to find jobs on their own. We also give them access to a fantastic network of influential women, which helps them expand their opportunities even further. 

In the end, you see this growth not only among the trained women themselves, but also in their communities. They inspire others to protect the ocean. They teach at local schools, organise beach and underwater clean-ups, and give swimming lessons to other local women. 

At first, I didn’t realise that most Indonesian women couldn’t swim. I was always the only woman swimming with my children, so I asked why the others didn’t join in. When they replied that they didn’t know how to swim, I decided to teach the women living on Gili Air how to swim too.” 

What does the future hold for you and Coral Catch? 

“We’ve reached a turning point over the past year. Early on, I did everything myself, from drafting contracts for the women to creating the Coral Catch brand. I worked day and night to keep everything on course. Now, we’ve finally reached a point where companies are coming to us instead of us having to seek sponsorships. It’s a relief. We’re certainly not there yet, but I don’t have to work as hard as in the beginning. 

However, the foundation keeps on growing, which led me to align Coral Catch’s goals with those of the United Nations, specifically focusing on gender equality and climate change. My biggest aim is to build a strong network of 100 female leaders to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs, but I have plenty of other goals too, which can be found on the website.” 

If you could give all women who are reading this blog some advice, what would it be? 

“Someone once told me: ‘Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.’ That’s always helped me. I often wonder, ‘am I even qualified to have an opinion on this since I’ve never done it before?’ But it doesn’t matter what your background is. If people see your passion, you’re already halfway there. So don’t let fear hold you back. If you wait until you feel ready, you’ll probably never start. So, take that step and see what comes your way.”