Just a few months ago, The Pollination Project granted Sudarsha De Silva a seed fund for an initiative called Poseidon Army through his organization called Earthlanka Youth Network in the country of Sri Lanka. Now, five young women have finalized their diving training, obtaining diving licenses that will allow them to do amazing work in marine conservation. We want to share with you their words of gratitude.
Thank you very much for the financial support provided by The Pollination Project, it allowed me to fulfill one of my biggest dreams: to become a diver. It was my first time underwater. I successfully completed all the tests as a diver which included learning the proper use of diving equipment, diving to a 20 meter depth and learning hand signals to communicate underwater. It was a great experience! This will allow me to join different marine conservation activities in the future.
Thank you for providing me with this grant. I have a degree in Marine Science and I work as a marine biologist but I couldn’t get my license until you helped me. When I went diving for the first time I could describe the experience in one word: Awesome! I hope to continue my work as a marine biologist and to do marine conservation work. I am focusing on coral restoration. This is a great opportunity for me to continue my career, thank you for providing me with this opportunity.
I had never imagined breathing under water or seeing life beneath water. It was the first time for me. It was a once in a lifetime experience.This is one of the best experiences in my life. At the beginning, it was scary and it was physically very demanding. However, at the end of the day, it was very exciting and I am so grateful for the opportunity. I am working on several projects, one of them is improving the quality of fisheries protecting animals by promoting the live release of protected species. I am so grateful for this great opportunity because the funding is really important and having the diving license and the lessons is really helpful for our projects.
Ocean is one of my passions. When I get stressed I go to the beach and I dive or do snorkeling. When I see the corals and marine species I automatically feel calm. Thank you so much for the opportunity. This was my third step in my diving career, the Rescue Diving License, another milestone in becoming a diving instructor in the future . It was a new experience even though I dive, because I learnt to become a rescue diver and obtained a medical license EFR (Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care) on how to give medical assistance and CPR. I am currently studying to become a specialist in Environmental and Marine Law and I have worked for 5 years as a volunteer with Earthlanka Youth Network doing marine cleanups and ghost net removal underwater as well as conservation and restoration projects.
It’s a great experience for my life. It’s a dream. Through this project I achieved my dream. I am a marine enforcement officer at the Marine Environment Protection Authority in Sri Lanka full time while volunteering for Earthlanka Youth Network and in my daily work I have to work to prevent pollution and promote conservation. We work in oil spills cleanup, coral preservation, marine conservation, manglar restoration and more. This was a great achievement for my career, my daily work in office and also for my life. It’s a great opportunity for the young generations in our country to join marine conservation through Earthlanka Youth Network. There are many young people who would wish to have this opportunity.
