Ocean Guardian’s Educational & Sports Centre

Project supported by Marine Megafauna Foundation

Created in 2011, Marine Megafauna Foundation is an organisation working to educate and empower local communities to manage their marine resources sustainably through innovative education, pioneering research, and community empowerment.

The Ocean Guardian’s programme was created in 2012 and encompasses an educational strategy with a clear goal: raise a generation of guardians who understand and cherish the ocean.

Context

Mozambique is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, ranked 181 out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index. 52% of the population are under 18; therefore, the education system faces many challenges in creating good learning opportunities, especially on cross-cutting topics such as conservation. Less than 60% of children complete primary school and only 20% attend secondary school resulting in the need to provide innovative ways to access education.

In this context, Marine Megafauna Foundation through its project intends to boost children’s access to sports and educational activities. The programme will enable more than 2300 children from the local communities in the Inhambane Province to benefit from conservation education, swimming lessons, sports activities, and vocational training. In 2020, Marine Megafauna Foundation acquired funding support to build an educational center.

To keep children engaged in school and motivated, the Ocean Guardian’s Educational & Sports Centre project seeks to add sports activities such as football into the educational centre.

Goals

Improve and complement school attendance for children
Facilitate the education of children who, for various reasons are unable to attend school
Teach swimming, water safety lessons, and football
Promote sustainable livelihoods for young adults focusing on girls
Facilitate the access to suitable regular sports activities for children from neighbouring villages
Provide food security and better nutrition for local children

Activities

Setting up a swimming pool for weekly swimming lessons and water-based learning covering floatation and recovery
Establishment of a sports court for weekly football lessons for children
Saturday activities sessions that include sports, beach clean-ups; swimming, snorkelling in the local estuary, and ocean safaris
Capacity building focused on fostering key skills and providing opportunities for young adults to explore their inherent talents

Impact

4,023 directs beneficiaries targeted by project
900 pupils will learn how to swim
Children in target communities will have the opportunity to attend classes even if they are not frequenting the local schools
Target children will be less vulnerable to food insecurity