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Diving to a brighter future
By Marisa de Silva
“They can now see tomorrow when they could only see yesterday,” says Francesca Koe, Master Scuba Diver Trainer who is in Madiha, Polhena to assist local divers who were badly affected by last year’s tsunami.

This community now has new hope, thanks to the Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) from Bay Area, in the USA . Francesca, (fondly called “the Principal” by her diving students) is one of the eight American instructors training a group of local divers in Madiha in safer dive practices to attain professional PADI certification. This would enable them to take tourists on dive tours and earn a regular income. Twenty five divers, between the ages of 19 – 42 are now being trained.

The American divers also hope to build awareness on the importance of safeguarding and re-energising the reefs. Post-graduate students of the University of Ruhuna will also work with the people of Madiha, to help monitor the reefs and set up any future dive-related business ventures. Many biology students too will be trained by the foreign PADI divers, so that they in turn can teach the local divers, thus overcoming the language gap as well, said Francesca. “This group of divers from Madiha, have promised to train a batch of divers from the next village, once they’re done, so that this programme can act as a catalyst to gradually revitalise the whole of the coastal belt,” she added.

Meanwhile an underwater memorial is to be constructed for all those who lost their lives to last year’s tsunami. “It will help them realise that the ocean is not just a destroyer but also a giver of life,” says Vladimir Soto, another volunteer instructor.

The memorial will comprise 35 installations in the form of stilt fishermen, representing the 35,000 people who lost their lives. Each structure will be situated 10m apart in the north of Madiha, said Francesca. The first of the structures will be installed on December 26, to mark the first anniversary of the tsunami, she said, adding, that it should take two to three months for the entire memorial to be constructed.

“Everyone can feel that something’s happening; there’s a totally new vibe coming from the people of the area,” says Kirk Jobsz, CEO and Founder of Mailman, the company that initiated this project. Kirk, together with the Director of Mailman Sri Lanka, Jason Firmin have played a major role in getting this whole project underway.

“What started off as just a simple e-mail to my friends, has now unintentionally grown into a display of international solidarity,” he says adding that Mailman based in China, sent a mail, which was seen by divers in the USA whilst the memorial was designed by a Mexican designer cum artist, Salvador Quiroz.

The response from the diver community in Madiha has been positive. “They’re all excited over the prospect of a better future,” said Soto. Even though the PADI certification is difficult to attain, they’ve managed to complete the first level – ‘Open Water’. “They are probably the best group that I ever taught,” he adds with pride.

The others training local divers are Brandon Bond, Christopher Chin, Bill Oakes, Miroslav Polakovic, Tom Yang and Sean Kelly. For more details visit www.paavima.org or e-mail madiha@scubasf.com. Anyone interested in supporting the underwater memorial can type HELP and SMS it to 4357 (sponsored by Dialog GSM).

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