Hi everybody!

Welcome to my Just Giving Page!.

I hope you feel inspired so I can raise £1000 to kick start my marine education and conservation project to help communities in Vietnam by providing free marine education and vocational training within the coastal tourism industry!

I will also raise more awareness on the issue of plastic pollution and equip communities with the knowledge and expertise to tackle the problem head on to help protect our oceans.

SCUBA's values are:

Stay Curious; it’s more fun

If you’re not learning; you’re not living

Never take the back seat

Do good. Always.

Asia is one of the biggest polluters in terms of their consumption and behaviours around single-use plastics and what with their rapid development for tourism; it is the perfect place to launch our business.

SCUBA will marry together ocean education with training I the tourism industry to provide opportunities to children in Vietnam to safeguard the ocean for the future.

A bit about me..

My names Harrie and for the past 10 years I have worked for all types of charities and environmental conservation projects across the globe. I have been luckily enough to explore the planet and work hard to protect it but I have also seen (in a short amount of time) the destruction of so many of the places I visited and local peoples exploited by the tourism industry.

In the last decade I have spent freezing cold days in the North of the UK fundraising on the streets; spent months living off rations and sleeping in tents searching for and tagging turtles; and helped raise lots of money for causes ranging from disaster relief, environmental issues and child protection. I have worked as a teacher, wildlife park tour guide, snorkel guide, scuba guide and I completely value the power of education. I have even worked on small islands where children have never seen the sea! How can this be so!?

Scuba was born out of my passion for everything under the ocean and the lack of access and education that lots of communities have to it. I had never snorkeled until I was 24 years old and it completely changed my world. I want to pass on the passion that I feel for the ocean so that others can protect and benefit from it for the future. So I have decided to use my knowledge and expertise to set up my own organisation to offer training to local communities to work in the tourism sector and educate all on the importance of safeguarding nature and the ocean.

Scuba's aims..

I want Scuba to work in S.C.U.B.A. ways:

S - Social Mobility - I want to transform lives by supporting local communities with training in skills in the tourism industry. This includes free swimming, free-diving, scuba diving and tour guide lessons. I will also work with local cooperatives in the production of our merchandise and equipment.

C - Conservation & Community Activism - Our campaigns, projects and clean-up initiatives will be driven by passionate members of communities. I want to continue running more thought-provoking events, fundraise for local causes and create steering groups for businesses and communities.

U - Underwater Education - I will be creating workshops, programs and school excursions to excite and unite students of all ages about the need to protect their natural environment. These programs are offered to international and local state schools, language centers and community project partners.

B - Business Development & Sustainable Tourism - I will offer businesses environmental Team Building Packages that allows companies to clean up the environment and learn about adopting greener business practices. Our sustainable tourism accreditation scheme advises and rewards tour operators who are environmentally conscious.

A - Ambassador Volunteer Programs - I will create volunteer ambassador roles who will be the voices and leaders of Scuba's program in communities. These will be split into 3 categories to attract different types of volunteers: Roaming (backpackers & international friends), Regional (in-country community leaders) and Student (university & college leads).

The launch event.

This November, Scuba will begin in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the biggest producers of plastic in the world and with the East of the country being coastline and the vast Mekong Delta in the South being served by Ho Chi Minh City and lands afar; a lot of plastic pollution makes its way into the sea. I lived in Vietnam in 2017 and saw just how much single-use plastic pollution is made available, the lack of education and attitude towards it and how much ends up on city streets, national parks, popular tourist locations and eventually, into rivers, and on to the coastline and into the sea.

On December 9th I will launch SCUBA with an event seeing me undertake a 6-week plastic clean-up mission across the entirety of Vietnam to educate and engage local communities on the dangers of plastic pollution. I will be joined by backpackers travelling Vietnam as we motorbike across the country cleaning different regions and areas: from cities and national parks, beaches and reefs, tourist hot spots and rivers and lakes. Each clean will bring together different members of the community to bring plastic pollution to the forefront of their minds.

Once the trip is finished SCUBA will reside in Ho Chi Minh City where our stewardship, education, business and ambassador programs will launch!

Below is a video demonstrating some of the monumental work we have been carrying out!

Why we'd like your help...

As you can see above, Scuba's ambitions are big!

There is much to set up within the organisation to make it a success and this is where I need your help!

We would like to achieve the following milestones with your generous donations:

- Create the face-to-face and online stewardship, education, business and ambassador materials and resources so we can reach a greater number of schools and businesses with our programs.

- Provide permanent beach/inland clean boxes for communities and help them establish a steering group to continue single-use plastic free initiatives

- Provide swimming lessons for communities to start generating an interest for water-based activities which will lead to further training in snorkel/scuba guide roles.

- Provide all the materials and equipment needed for the December Scuba launch to complete cleans on beaches, reefs and cities, national parks and rivers.

- Start working with local producers to create sustainable and compostable alternatives for communities and provide local people with jobs.

- The cost of a Vietnamese translator/printer to render my material leglible in Vietnam.

To date, everything has been set up in my free time around work and on a voluntary basis. I would like to increase the speed in which I deliver my projects and get equipment out but I need more financial help to make this happen! I need to invest more in publicity materials, make sure I have enough school resources and cover equipment expenses for the launch.

I am happy with anything amount that anyone gives - I am in contact with lots of Vietnamese companies, schools and individuals who want to see change. Now is the time to make this happen - please help and support Scuba if you can :)

You can follow us on social media using the links below...

Instagram: @Scubaprojects 

Facebook: SCUBA

Youtube: Scuba Projects

Website : www.scubaprojects.org

Email: scubaprojects@gmail.com

Thank you for reading our story and thank you for your support!

Harrie