Seas4life Foundation
t’s been said before –there is ‘No Planet B’. Earth is our home and we need to pull our heads out of the sand and see what we are doing to destroy it. And it starts with clean waterways, oceans, and more marine protected areas! That is why we created Seas4Life Foundation –the Giving Back arm of Seas4Life; and a brain-child of Julie’s. Seas4Life Foundation funds initiatives that promote clean and healthy waterways and seas; this in turn promotes the wellbeing of the biodiversity and ecosystems that we need in order to survive on this planet. It is our right, and the right of all creatures, to live in a nourishing and unpolluted environment. For this reason, the trust has a 3 pillar programmatic approach
The first is what we call ‘The Plastic Challenge’ or theClean Seas Initiative. One of the biggest threats to clean and healthy waterways and seas is plastic. It is choking our oceans and killing our marine life. Our mission is to support initiatives in Eastern Africa that are directly involved in reducing and removing plastic and other pollutants from our waterways and seas. Eventually we envision recycling our plastic waste footprint into raw energyor roads. We do this with partners. This year funds raised from our Cycle4Seas went towards 5 beach community groups participating in the International Coastal Cleanup effort, September 21, 2019. Also to documenting the Kenyan commitment to the coastal clean up in 2019.
The second is Marine Conservation Initiatives. There is no lasting marine conservation area without the buy in and participation of the local communities, who rely on the seas to sustain them. We envision building a ‘Blue Wall’ of connected marine protected areas, through partnership such as Oceans Alive who won the equator award for their work in Kuruwitu’s marine protected area that saw a bleached coral reef return to a rich ecosystem of colourful coral and fish.To do this, we work with the local communities and develop a network of local marine conservation areas. For these to work, we willexplore sustainable financial systems.
The third is through Education -Learning4Seas: This focuses on secondary and tertiary students, traveling from Nairobi or elsewhere, to the Seas. Through the journey they connect with local communities, talk about the water cycle, learn about the influence of clean and healthy waterways, get involved in clean ups, travel through national protected areas, and end up at the ocean. Here they will meet the managers of the protected areas, snorkel, learn about the diversity and leave with an understanding of how we as humans influence the sea, and how the sea influences us. We also connect upcountry schools to coastal schools through art works, expeditions and much more. We envision creating a portfolio of art creations by children to generate greater awareness and connection.
Seas4Life Trust raises its funding from epic endurance events such as Cycle4Seas, an off road cycling event, from Nairobi to Watamu, in August that raised just over USD 20,000 thanks to 17 pioneering cyclists. It also raises awareness by creating compelling stories that motivate the public to listen and rise to action and make changes to the way they do things, i.e. using single use plastic
