My Beautiful Launderette

The figures hit us straight away. When we heard that Pure Laundry, a new enterprise in Fumba Uptown, could wash, dry and neatly fold 7.2 tonnes of laundry per day, we knew that THE FUMBA TIMES had to visit the place. 7.2 tonnes – that’s about 1,000 normal household washing machine loads. Per day!

Behind the professional laundry and dry-cleaning service for hotels, clinics and private clients are two clever minds: Didem and Mbaraka Ljohiy, a woman psychiatrist from Turkey and her husband, a plastic surgeon originally from Tanzania.

As often with people who move to Zanzibar, their story is full of surprises. The couple with two  children met at Istanbul university, came to the island during COVID, mounted a successful testing lab here – and started wondering: “Are hospital linens, uniforms and sheets really sterile enough?”, as Dr. Didem Ljohiy gently puts it.

What started with that simple notion, became “our biggest investment ever”, her husband says. Pure Laundry operates in a super-neat factory  in Bakhresa’s Fumba Uptown. “We’d have the capacity to clean Zanzibar’s entire laundry”, the owners say, “but we slowly build up.” Didem shows us how over 40 staff handle industrial-grade washing and drying machines, iron boards, folding machines. Each client’s linen is washed separately; a little signboard on the machine indicates whose turn it is. An islandwide pickup and delivery service is in place, with 24-hour turnaround. Ecological matters are taken care of; the water’s PH factor is tested to avoid detergent residues.