Pink Dolphin: Look Pa, No Males! Hong Kong’s Females-Only Swimming Academy Seeks to Foster an Inclusive Swimming Community

Bibi Tayyaba and Rachel Leung co-founded Pink Dolphin, a pioneering initiative in Hong Kong aimed at providing a safe and inclusive environment for female swimming learners, particularly those from ethnic minority (EM) groups who have modesty concerns on account of their religious beliefs. The swimming academy offered swimming lessons at various levels, as well as water therapy sessions, catering to females of all ages, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds. Pink Dolphin’s certified swimming coaches and lifeguards were all females, and males were not permitted in the pool area during classes. In addition, Pink Dolphin aimed to empower EM females by training them to become swimming coaches and lifeguards.

While Pink Dolphin had been attracting a steady flow of female students since its inception in 2021, lessons were conducted at only one location in Hong Kong, and also only on Sundays in the afternoon, when Tayyaba was free to help out. If the social enterprise were to scale its operations, how should it do so? Also, while it was never the intention of the co-founders to make the swimming academy an exclusive group, some people had misunderstood the nature of the social enterprise and questioned why its clientele was primarily female and also largely non-Chinese. What could Tayyaba and Leung do to scale operations and achieve their vision of developing an inclusive swimming community in the city?

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