Handicapped Scuba Association South Africa – Who we are and what we do.
HSASA was established in 2014 and is a non-profit company that specializes in training people with disabilities, on how to scuba dive. Our NPC number is: 2014/027833/08.
HSASA NPC is an entity on its own and functions independently from any dive school or instructor.
Scuba Diving has a great rehabilitative effect on people living with disabilities – so great, that it restores their self-confidence and human dignity, as well as gives them a new perspective in life. After being trained on how to scuba dive, they do not only gain new skills in recreational diving, but they also meet new long-lasting friends and have a sense of belonging. Scuba diving opens up a new world to disabled people, who thought that their lives are over.
After being trained, the disabled divers start to live more adventurously and live their lives to the full. When diving (and with the help of their dive buddies), the physically challenged and wheelchair-bound people, get the opportunity to be free from gravity for approximately 50 minutes (duration of a dive) and are able to move as freely as they like. These disabled people’s outlook on life, are permanently changed. People with various disabilities, ranging from: spina bifida, hearing loss, amputees, paraplegics, quadriplegics, muscular dystrophy, sight impairment, hemiplegics, cerebral palsy, cognitive disability and locked-in syndrome, are all trained.
About our Instructors and dive buddies: The Adaptive Instructors and Adaptive Dive Buddies, who assist the disabled divers underwater (who gets no compensation, but they do it out of love and compassion), receive specialized training. During the Adaptive instructors- and dive buddy training courses, the instructors and dive buddies receive medical information on various disabilities, through interactive lectures. When their practical part of the course starts, they literally have to ‘act out’ the various disabilities, so that they can experience and have a better understanding of what a disabled person (with a specific medical condition) will experience, when underwater.
HSASA 