As many of our crew come from our local Kendwa village or neighbouring rural communities, most have little formal education. We make it a priority to provide training across all areas of the business. In the photos above, our skippers, boat crew and others are going scuba diving on a quiet afternoon with perfect sea conditions. Especially for skippers and boat crew, it highlights the importance of their job in keeping the boat near to the dive group.

We train our crew in-house to become PADI dive professionals and whereas the normal path to divemaster requires completing each course only once, our crew are exposed to each course along the way numerous times.

Scuba Do was honoured by the invitation from the Zanzibar Department of Environment to participate in the Regional Symposium on the Sustainable Development with an application to the Coastal Zone Management. The symposium was hosted in Mauritius and was the first regional meeting sponsored by the Indian Ocean Commission to create a regional road map on sustainable development with the application to coastal areas. Our Zanzibar team of both government and tourism stakeholders shared our island specific environmental issues with other delegates from Madagascar, Republic of Mauritius, Union of Comoros, Reunion, Seychelles, Rodrigues, Sainte-Marie and Moheli. It was an extremely positive exercise and we have made contacts with many regional experts allowing us to expand our resources to help address some of the environmental isses we experience.

At Scuba Do Zanzibar, all of our instructors are not only trained as Hyperbaric Chamber Operators / Attendants, but also experienced in treating injured fishermen and recreational divers. Scuba diving is one of the safest recreational activities to undertake when done properly. When dive leaders understand the consequences and treatment of diving injuries, it encourages conservative dive profiles as well as an improved ability to recognise signs and symptoms in divers.

We enjoy visiting schools or student groups to share both our challenges and actions toward marine conservation here in Zanzibar. We have spoken to students of ages ranging from as young as the kindergarteners in the photo to University level students. If your school group are covering any ocean related topics, we would be more than happy to volunteer our time as guest speakers - Swahili or English!

We have also run a number of courses for both local and international student groups. These courses focus on learning to dive, environmental and conservation activities or diving safety.

Suzuki Marine in conjunction with Claver Motors, who are the official East African Suzuki outboard engine distributors, conducted a multi-day four-stroke engine workshop. This advanced workshop covered detailed computer diagnostic training alongside complete engine disassembly and reassembly. It was conducted by the managing director of Claver Motors. This training led to us being invited to become a part of the Suzuki family #144 and an invite for our newly Suzuki trained technician to attend the Africa Distributors Service Seminar held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The seminar was held from the 13-16th June 2016 in the Suzuki Auto South Africa (SASA) headquarters.

Scuba Do Zanzibar was invited as a stakeholder and community member to the planning meeting for the beach lifeguard training course in Zanzibar hosted by the Panje Project and the Royal National Lifeguard Institution of the United Kingdom. Since this initial meeting, Scuba Do sent three of our crew to become trainers for the project and this training was facilitated in Dar es Salaam by RNLI. We have been proud to be a small part of this fantasticly successful and sustainable initiative which has trained trainers who in turn continue to train both girls and boys from our community in the lifesaving skill of being able to swim.

Two Scuba Do Crew stayed on Chumbe Island for several days to train their staff in life saving, rescue techniques and first aid. Supervised by Khamis, a qualified RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) instructor and his assistant Juma, the training was theoretical as well as very hands-on and formed an important part of Chumbe Island Coral Park's continuous ranger training program.

The Chumbe project is amazingly successful in creating environmental awareness in Zanzibar. Their Environmental Education (EE) program is provides free of charge environmental education for school children, teachers, fishers, community groups and government officials through sponsored field excursions to the island. The rangers have a huge responsibility in guiding the participants, many who cannot swim, in snorkelling on their pristine coral reefs. Scuba Do Zanzibar are proud to assist with this amazing initiative!

We were invited on behalf of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI) to participate in the Regional Technical Committee on Coral Reefs. Our presentation was entitled, "Coral Reef Management and Conservation: Role of Zanzibar's Private Sector". We opened with background information on Zanzibar's Tourism Industry, discussed the importance of coral reefs for tourism, showcased Chumbe Island's privatly managed marine protected area as Zanzibar's success story, introduced our Ocean Watch Group initiative, discussed our challenges as well as initiatives undertaken.

We received an invitation to present at the World Tourism Day in Nungwi and our divemaster Khamis jumped at the opportunity. He presented very well to a crowd of government authorities, academics, and the community on his role in the tourism industry, challenges we are facing and initiatives undertaken.