Everyone is equal in the water
The amazing thing about handicapped people who go diving is seeing how they get to experience movement - free movement.
IMAGINE being bound to a wheelchair for the rest of your life, you can’t walk – and that’s if you are lucky, as some wheelchair bound people are paralysed from the neck down. You spend your days in this wheelchair, without having ever truly experienced what it means to be ‘free’. To all intents and purposes, the wheelchair you are confined to is basically a ten-ton shackle.
But, what if you could be set free from that prison, even if it is just for 50 minutes? Would that not be the best 50 minutes of your life?
The non-profit organisation, Handicapped Scuba Association of South Africa – established in South Africa in 2009 – has been setting ‘shackled’ people free from their chains ever since, by taking them diving.
Although based in Gauteng, the company organises trips throughout Africa, specifically Mozambique’s Ponta Malongane.
Fortunately for us South Coast folk, the company arrived in Umkomaas last week and took four handicapped people diving on Tuesday, October 25.
Among the divers was one of the directors of HSASA, experienced diver, Melissa Leonard, who enjoyed her first dive off of the Umkomaas coast.
“You really cannot imagine the rehabilitative effect diving has for handicapped people,” she said. “To experience the freedom of movement gives us a reason to live again.”
Ms Leonard experienced her first dive in 2011 and said that, ever since then, she has been hooked. The mere mention of the word diving and her eyes light up like a Christmas tree.
Ms Leonard continued diving and in October of 2011, qualified in her Advanced Diving Course, Nitrox Course as well as her Emergency First Response Diving Course.
Fellow director of HSASA, Vic Hugo, who qualified in his HSA Buddy Course is able to assist handicapped people on their dives as well.
“The amazing thing about handicapped people who go diving, is seeing how they get to experience movement – free movement – and how they are treated as equals in the water,” said Ms Leonard.
People with various disabilities, including spina bifida, hearing loss, amputees, paraplegics, quadriplegics, muscular dystrophy, sight impairment, hemiplegics, cerebral palsy, cognitive disability and locked-in syndrome, are all trained and recognised as HSA Divers. The people who assist the disabled divers under water receive special training and are known as HSA Instructors and HSA Dive Buddies.
The Handicapped Scuba Association of South Africa is dedicated and aims to change and improve the physical and social well-being of people living with disabilities through the use of recreational diving.
If you want to get involved, assist with funding, or require further information, contact Melissa Leonard at 083-5458295 or melissa@hsa-sa.co.za
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