Koror, Palau – FRIENDS of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary is collaborating with the Ministry of Education to host the ninth (9th) Palau Pledge Dive Camp during the Fall Intersession this September. This is a great opportunity to become a certified PADI Junior Open Water Diver. Dive Camp applications will be made available to Palau High School Juniors and Seniors in August.
Minister Dale Jenkins said “The Palau Pledge Dive Camp is a fantastic opportunity for Palauan youth to become Junior Open Water certified divers while also learning about Palauan culture, environmental science, marine biology and ecotourism, all aimed to demonstrate career path opportunities available for our youth”.
Palau Pledge Dive Camp aims to provide opportunities for young Palauans in our community. With service learning as our strategy, future career paths are acknowledged through hands-on experience regarding Palau’s culture, environment, and history. Palau Pledge is partnering with Sam’s Tours to provide the Junior Open Water Dive Certification to solidify the youth’s interest in conservation and awareness of the ocean.. To date, there have been 87 young Palauans certified under the Palau Pledge Dive Camp.
The combination of marine and cultural activities help to increase emotional well being, body strength and flexibility by being active, relieves stress, and improves concentration capacity which promotes non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. The Dive Camp is partially funded through the NCD Fund to promote outdoor activities for young people. In addition, it is through the generosity of the following donors who were able to sponsor students to become certified divers at NO cost: Bel-Pacific, Inc.; Bank of Guam, National Development Bank of Palau, Globus Trading Company, Taiwan Embassy, and the Australian Embassy.