44 women learned to dive and rebuilt a dying reef

A nonprofit called Coral Catch has trained 44 women from across Indonesia to restore coral reefs off Gili Air, a tiny island in the Gili archipelago known for its marine life. Founded by Rose Huizenga, a Dutch woman who arrived on sabbatical and never left, the nine-week scholarship teaches local women to build reef structures from bent steel, tend coral nurseries and monitor them year after year. The idea was met with early skepticism about whether women in a predominantly Muslim country would trade hijabs for wetsuits. Over 150 applied to the first cohort. Since 2021, mentees have planted more than 5,000 coral fragments across over 300 restoration structures. In 2025, researchers documented coral spawning from seven species, a first for the islands. Every graduate remains active in conservation work, an unusually high retention rate. Gabriela Nathania H, now studying in Queensland, has a colony of hex domes named after her. "I want to see how my baby corals are doing," she says.