How does Virtual Reality contribute to real life impact?
In 2021 when Nancy Iraba - an award-winning marine scientist, Mandela Washington Fellow and NEWF Fellow joined the NEWF’s Decade Divemaster Storytelling Lab she could barely swim. Passionate about ocean access and science communication, what’s most striking about her is her gift for turning barriers into opportunities to learn.
Known to ask questions with her characteristic hand gestures, she has taken everything she’s gained through her experiences back to Tanzania to reframe, reshape and refine the impact work she is so passionate about it.
Having conquered her swim tests, gruelling rescue training and logging her final dives towards her divemaster, Nancy’s first show of the impact these opportunities have was interviewing with an organisation who went of to offer her a role doing coral monitoring and restoration off the coast of Mnemba Island. Her newfound confidence and buoyancy skills came in handy, bringing her marine science education to life in a new way.
Her next move? Launching an underwater program to share this world. Framed by her passion and putting her network to use, she passionately imparts her research and communication skill sets to conservationists, storytellers, and filmmakers. Partnering with NEWF, Aqua-Farms Organisation facilitated a Tanzanian Dive Lab aimed at training and certifying local Tanzanians on their home turf.
An extension of her passion for the underwater world, it’s fitting that Nancy used 2023’s World Oceans Day as an opportunity to introduce her community to the fascinating, coralline world that represents so much beauty and opportunity for her community.
Asking her about the potential VR has as a tool in her community and country, she shares the motivation behind their successful 2023 World Oceans Day activation:
VR serves as a powerful and invaluable tool to promote equality by spreading awareness and creating experiential learning opportunities for coastal and inland populations. While experienced fishermen are familiar with the ocean, many women and youth, despite living just a few meters from the sea, have never had the courage to explore marine life. This is also true for individuals with disabilities.
As our country emphasises the importance of digital economies, VR emerges as an excellent medium to unite people in understanding ocean dynamics without the necessity of physical presence. For a significant portion of the population, the ocean remains a source of fear. But these immersive VR experiences ignite interest and encourage to further explore and learn about marine environments. This technology not only alleviates fear, but fosters a deeper connection and appreciation for the ocean among diverse communities.
Just days ago, Jerry Mang’ena (Co-Founder and Executive Director of Aqua-Farms Organisation) and Husna Amimu (Marine Scientist with expertise in Coral Reef and Mangrove Restoration) spent a week at eKhaya participating in the NEWF x YDWP Exchange. Together they presented a brief overview of the Aqua-Farms Organisation and each of their personal motivations in Marine Science and beyond. Taking a practical approach, they demonstrated and shared their joint expertise in coral reef restoration and seaweed techniques with the YDWP team in an exercise involving tables covered in wire and molding materials.
This community-centric approach is a display of shared passion and alignment for the vision of authentic and holistic African Stories that embody the organic contributions by and knowledge from indigenous people across the African continent and diaspora. Stories, research and impact initiatives that include significant strides for conservation - and for community-centric economic and skills development rooted in inter-generational tides of passion and talent.
Showing these communities how dives can and are led by fellow Africans - even if only in a virtual reality setting - is showing them that the world of possibility so often spoken about, includes them. And that the wealth on their doorstep that they’ve not necessarily seen in person, is a part of nature that they undeniably belong to and can sustainably benefit from.
Gallery Collection 1:
Aqua-Farms Organisation, 2023 World Oceans Day Community VR Event
All photographs courtesy for AFO TZ.
Gallery Collection 2:
Aqua-Farms Organisation knowledge sharing at eKhaya Storytelling and Research Centre
All photographs courtesy of Mogamat Shamier Magmoet.
