COMING SUMMER 2015 - SINK OR SWIM : LEARNING THE CRAWL IN THE MALDIVES
Follow Filmmaker, author, activist and National Geographic "Ocean Hero" Jon Bowermaster 's latest film as he shares the inspiring story of how reconnecting a Maldivian community to the water inspired local kids and mothers to truly understand the importance of taking better care of the beautiful ocean that surrounds them.
For two weeks, our ONE OCEAN Media Foundation, along with the SLOW LIFE Foundation, helped organize, and film, a unique learn-to-swim project on the remote Maldivian island of Eydhafushi at Soneva Fushi.
Despite living just a couple feet above sea level, many of the locals here never learn to swim.
At the end of the two weeks, the forty-eight third-graders and eighteen burka-clad mothers who had come each day for lessons put on masks, fins and snorkels and, for many of them, were for a first time able to see the water world below the surface. Like many corners of Planet Ocean the Maldives suffer from a variety of ills, mostly manmade: Overfishing. Plastic pollution. Rising sea levels due to a warming ocean. And ocean acidification. Teaching these incredible families to swim was the first step towards encouraging them to be even better guardians and stewards of the sea.