Olazul offers hands-on training to artisanal fishermen divers in Mexico to improve safety and build emergency response capacity to reduce hazardous dive practices and serious injury.
Fishing is the world's deadliest job--and fishermen divers face the highest risks. Artisanal fishermen often stay at depth 5 times longer than safe limits, leading to severe injury, paralysis and even death. Up to half of divers suffer neurological damage that will last a lifetime. Due to lack of knowledge and training in safe dive practices, 2 divers from La Paz, Baja Sur died in the past 6 months. Fishermen dive to feed their families, but risky diving leaves families without a breadwinner.
Olazul teaches fishermen to be safe and responsible divers. We train them to prevent and treat injuries, give CPR, and recognize signs of decompression sickness or neurological damage to allow for professional treatment in a timely manner.
Each fisherman who receives training has the potential to positively impact 10 more fishermen with his knowledge and resources to prevent and treat dive injuries. Participating in this training will also ensure the 600 youth from the El Manglito fishing community grow up supported by healthy, productive relatives.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
