Despite the hard times that the tourism sector is going through, the commitment of Coral Eye to help improve life in the local villages in Bangka is till standing.
Since the lockdown procedure has been implemented in North Sulawesi and in the Manado area, students are not able to go to school, and just like in the rest of the world, they are expected to follow the lessons online. Unfortunately, having a stable connection on an island is not easy. The access to good quality internet is not available for everybody and some students have no means to go online at all.
Coral Eye, with the assistance of a German NGO and a local internet provider in Likupang, decided to open the doors to the students in need, providing a stable, fast and free internet connection.
Studying at Coral Eye
Initially the students were all very shy. Then, slowly they started to feel more comfortable, to finally starting to consider Coral Eye a second home.
One day, while I was looking at the beach after a storm, three of them approach me asking “why are you looking so sad?”, after the initial surprise I replied “Look at the beach.. today we have a lot of plastic. The view makes me sad”. They looked at each other and replied “Can we help to collect it?”. And from that moment on they regularly came and helped us to keep our beach clean.
Beach clean-up
After seeing Rini, Mesje and Ingrit collecting plastic with a smile and trying to involve other students in their initiative, we decided to take them diving and after seeing their enthusiasm and interest in the marine ecosystem, we continued with a SSI Open Water Diver Course.
New Open Water Divers
After completion of the course, they remain committed, involving more and more friends, because Coral Eye feels like “home”.