By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 6 December 2014:
International Volunteer Day was celebrated in Tripoli yesterday with contributions from some 30 NGOs and . . .[restrict]with particular attention given to a new initiative to teach Libya’s young people how to scuba-dive.
“In October we had an idea to train 500 young people from our coastal cities to scuba-dive,” the head of the organisation for international days, Ali Al-Ragabi told the Libya Herald. “One of the things we are celebrating today is the ‘graduation’ of the first batch of 17 youngsters who have completed this training.”
The scuba-diving training was a co-operation between the Libyan Olympic body, some private centres and several government agencies, including the Environmental Authority, he explained.
The first 17 young people who have learned to scuba-dive as part of this project were selected from Tripoli schools. After this initial success, the project would start to be rolled out at towns and cities along the Libyan coast, said head of the protected areas section of the Environmental Authority Essam Bourass. “We believe that scuba-diving is going to become a very popular sport in Libya,” he added.
During yesterday’s event, held at one of the historic hotels in Tripoli Old Town, other projects run by various local NGOs were also presented. Those who were not able to attend in person sent in short films or sets of photographs highlighting the work they were doing.
Ragabi said that 18 towns and cites across Libya also held events to mark the day. [/restrict]
