Diving as a career is still rare on the Tanzanian coast, and rarer still for women. AFO’s Ocean Access Programme is closing that gap by building a homegrown pipeline of marine scientists, ocean rangers, conservation storytellers, and underwater filmmakers, drawn directly from coastal communities and trained to lead the region’s marine conservation work rather than watch it from the shore.
Founded in 2021 with the Africa Refocused Program (a partnership between NEWF and the National Geographic Society), the International Aquanautic Club, Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park, and the Segal Family Foundation, Tanzania DiveLab trains local divers from Open Water certification through to Divemaster level. In 2025 that training moved into a permanent home, the AFO Eco Dive Centre in Kilwa Masoko, the first PADI certified, locally operated eco dive training hub in East Africa run by a nonprofit. It runs a dedicated All Women Dive Lab track alongside its general cohorts.
The Matumbawe Hai Innovators Lab is a six month hackathon incubator for reef restoration, bringing together early career marine scientists, engineers, designers, and community organisers to co-create low cost, locally buildable coral restoration structures. Fellows spend the first phase in Dar es Salaam developing their ideas, then move to Kilwa full time to build, test, and refine them directly with the communities who will maintain them.
The programme’s clearest proof point is its own alumni. Washington Denis, Joyce Mganga, and Husna Amimu all started as interns on AFO’s Matumbawe Hai Coral Restoration Project in Buyuni, training as Open Water divers as part of their fieldwork. A year later, all three returned through Tanzania DiveLab to complete their Divemaster certification, over 480 hours of training, and moved on to lead conservation and diving work of their own. Husna Amimu went on to become the programme’s first female instructor, winning the 2025 OceanLove Innovation Award for it.
“The doors that can open for people with dive experience are huge, not only in science, but tourism, engineering, photography and others.”
Angelique Brathwaite, Science Director, Blue Alliance
287,240 mangroves restored. 69 communities in co-management across Tanzania’s coast. None of it happens without people like you.
