Hi everybody!

Welcome to my Just Giving Page!.

I hope you feel inspired so I can raise £5000 to continue the work of my mobile marine education project providing both coastal and inland communities with the knowledge, infrastructure and inspiration to protect oceans for the future.

I am currently in Mexico and will be touring through the Central America continent running my programs.

Our Campaigns:

My goal is to create ocean stewards, activists, and influencers across the globe!

1. Raising awareness on the issue of plastic pollution and equipping communities with the knowledge and expertise to tackle the problem head on.

2. Providing educational programs including presentations, workshops and lessons including our Ocean Camp Initiative to bring the ocean to the classroom or classroom to the ocean to inspire the next generation to take action!

3. Using marine conservation as a focus for 'English as a Foreign Language' lessons to inspire children to learn English whilst learning about the underwater world.

3. Working with businesses to improve their sustainability initiatives and inspiring the workforce with team building events to encourage them to take action, reduce their single-use plastic footprint and help protect the spaces they love.

4. Allow our educational messages to reach the world with our Youtube Travel Documentary Channel 'Wandering Salty' to highlight all the positive work organisations are doing across Vietnam to tackle the issues plaguing the protection of the ocean.

Salty Projects Values

Stay Curious; it’s more fun | If you’re not learning; you’re not living | Do good. Always | Go for the Gusto!

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!?

Salty Projects 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.

Salty Projects aims:

I want Scuba Projects 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).

Salty Projects achievements to date:

In December 2018 we set off on an ambitions launch event; crossing Vietnam South to North hosting plastic pollution cleans with local communities and other environmental organisations.

Across our 7 week adventure we hosted 13 clean events in all types of different locations: cities, jungles, rivers, beaches, reefs and during national culteral events!

In total we removed over 350,000kgs of plastic pollution, worked together with over 20 Vietnamese environmental organisations, featured on Vietnamese news channels , gave talks in schools and created a following of over 14,000 people on Facebook with our #trashtagchallenge video reaching 7 million viewers in total!

You can view this mammoth effort below and of course this couldn't have been achieved without all the help of our volunteers and the locals of this community!

So why do I need your help?

As you can see above, Salty Projects 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:

- I am looking to buy, kit out and visit both coastal and landlocked communities in my Mobile Marine Education Station to offer support, guidance and workshops to communities about their single-use plastic and waste issues and inspire children with our marine-based lessons.

- 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 Ocean Camps for schools and 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.

- 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 Projects if you can :)

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

Instagram: @salty_projects | Facebook: Salty Projects | Youtube: Wandering Salty | Website : www.wanderingsalty.com

Email: wanderingsalty@gmail.com

Thank you for reading my Just Giving page and thank you for you support!

Kind regards,

Harrie