Divers Helping Education In Egypt

[Anemone]

Scuba divers support Sinai schools

An exciting and unusual new project to help local schools is being developed by the diving community on the Sinai peninsular in Egypt. One of the organisers of the project, Mark Fraenkel, explains that divers are being asked to bring all kinds of educational material and equipment out on holiday and to donate it to local government schools in the area.

The project has been initiated by Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village, a long established dive centre a few kilometers north of Naama Bay.

Caroline Love, the hotel manager at the Diving Village told us that “thousands of divers regularly decamp to the shores of the Red Sea - yet it is an inescapable fact that many of those travellers know little of the life that exists in Egypt and the Sinai outside of the diving resorts”.

The new project plans to try and change that. The project has been kick-started by Sharks Bay UK agent Oonasdivers, with a donation of ₤500 worth of equipment.

Staff at the dive centre have been in close contact with two local government schools in the Sharm area and they plan to extend the project to cover other schools in the nearby towns of Dahab and El Tur.

Despite the obvious commitment shown by the teachers at both schools it is glaringly obvious that this determination is undermined by the lack of facilities and equipment in the schools. The first two schools that will benefit from the project are Rowayset School, a predominantly Bedouin school in a town about two kilometers inland from Sharm el Sheikh. The second will be the Fayrouz School which is situated between Naama Bay and Sharm el Maya (Old Sharm).

Teachers at the schools told us that there are many things that it would be useful for holidaymakers to bring out. The list is probably topped by English language books for foreigners followed by sports equipment and educational computer games. Other useful items include decent quality drawing paper, crayons, water colours and other arts and craft equipment.

The school in Rowayset was partly refurbished recently thanks to the work of the local Rotary Club. New plumbing, blackboards and fans were installed. The school, with an age range from 4-14, still needs much equipment.
Staff at Sharks Bay have agreed that the dive centre can act as the central collection agency for all the donated equipment and they will ensure that the equipment is transported to the head teachers at the respective schools.

The project is part of a wider development that aims to bring dive centres in the area into closer contact with their local communities. Already Sharks Bay and another well-known local dive centre, Ocean College, have begun a twinning project with the school in Rowayset.
Both operations offered free Discover Scuba Diving places for last term and the first of these sessions was completed In June. Competitions were held in the schools to choose the lucky participants and the underwater video company Focus kindly made some great videos of the day which have been donated to the participants. Both dive centres have made a commitment to continue these sessions every term.

The staff at Sharks Bay pride themselves on being a friendly mixture of local Bedouins, Egyptians of both Islamic and Christian Coptic extraction and of Europeans mainly from the UK. The complex itself dates back to 1982 when Umbarak, a well-known local Bedouin - born and bred on the shores of the Red Sea - started to run diving trips from the bay.

As Sharm develops more and more of these cooperation’s are planned. They can only make the Sinai a more pleasant place in which to live.

Divers visiting Sharm are being asked to bring the requested equipment and books and to drop them off at Sharks Bay.

Please bring donated books and equipment to: Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village, Sharm el Sheikh, 7kms north of Naama Bay.

For further information about the project please use the following contact email:
Info@SharksBay.com



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