We are expanding our outreach and education initiatives in 2025. As we protect African penguins, we also support the people who share their shoreline. Because when conservation is done right, it lifts ecosystems and communities.
That’s why we are donating our own funds to partner with the Dyer Island Conservation Trust in South Africa to support the DEEP Blue Ambassadors Program—a three-year environmental education journey for disadvantaged students in Gansbaai, a coastal town two hours from Cape Town. While this community struggles with hardships, the people there support each other, despite their limited resources. The program tracks the personal growth, academic progress, and awakening of environmental leadership of every learner.
Let us tell you about one student.
Her life was confined to the boundaries of an informal settlement and she carried the weight of survival more than the freedom of childhood. She lived just four kilometers from the ocean, but had never seen it.
Then came a beach cleanup.
She stepped into the surf and gasped as it touched her toes. Then she laughed. Then silence. You could see it in her eyes: something shifted.
That same year, she met African penguins, left her hometown for the first time, and witnessed dolphins and a breaching whale during a marine excursion. That’s the day she learned the ocean isn’t just water. It breathes.
By year two, she was mentoring younger learners.
This program changes lives. Of the first 13 students, 10 stayed to finish school. Nine passed their exams. That 90% success rate still holds. Today, 82 young learners from communities where finishing school defies the odds are carrying that momentum forward.
More about DEEP
DEEP’s impactful three-year program introduces these young learners to science and conservation. The program focuses on:
- Leadership
- The Marine Big 5 (including critically endangered African penguins) and other local wildlife
- Wetlands
- Marine pollution
- Photography
- Presentation skills
- Biodiversity
- Healthy living and food gardening
The program sparks curiosity and connection by guiding students beyond where they live, with activities like these.
- a visit to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town
- an eco cruise to experience the wonders of the ocean firsthand
- theatre productions at the Hermanus FynArts Festival
- a year-end graduation camp.
The DEEP Blue Ambassadors program teaches the youth invaluable lessons about themselves and their surroundings. It builds an understanding of their environment. We are facing an environmental crisis, it is very important to educate the leaders of tomorrow today. We need to re-establish the connection between man and nature. It takes the entire community to raise a child, we work together to raise these blue ambassadors for the future protection of our oceans.
Updated June 25, 2025
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