The further development of these amazingly brave and talented individuals is deeply important to us, to our town and for their individual futures.
Each time there is an emergency in the river, SAPS divers from East London are called in to assist, which is a 5 hour drive from Port St Johns.
These 4 men are local life guards with a passion for water and for people.
As these men have limited scuba diving training behind them, the Offshore Africa team of dive instructor / skippers are assisting in a community project to further develop their training, further their water experience, dive knowledge and dive training to be in a position to assist further. The aim is that these trained individuals would fill the gap of being able to attend to an emergency immediately instead of waiting for 5 hours for SAPS divers to arrive from East London.
We are seeking additional funding to get Philani, Nqobile, Azolile and Siyamcela fully trained and experienced as Rescue Divers and to introduce them to sharks, diving with sharks and an in-depth understanding of sharks for the areas that these guys will work in. Further on-site training will also take place in zero visibility diving for river rescue work.
Kindly follow this link if you would like to assist with this project.
We will post updates to this story on a regular basis.