Since the start of the holiday season, there have been zero diving-related accidents at the popular Harmony Park Resort thanks largely to the efforts of Echoes of Hope, a group of paralysed individuals all injured in diving accidents over the years.
“The awareness project is ongoing and has been incredibly successful so far,” said Edgar Hartnick, a founding member of Echoes of Hope.
The group aims to engage resort visitors on the risks associated with jumping head first into the water over the holiday season.
Its five members, who are all paralysed and in wheelchairs, were previously employed seasonally by the City of Cape Town years ago, after co-founder Jozua Julies and Hartnick conducted an awareness programme with great success.
“We are working under the Beach Buddy project this year,” explained Hartnick.
“Since the start of December we have engaged with the beach goers on safe-diving awareness and cleaning the beach.”
He added the group was very pleased with its outreach this season.
“We had no accidents so far, which has saved lives. Our goal is make the awareness project a permanent seasonal thing. Last year (2002) marked 20 years since we started the awareness project with Health Department staff at the Spinal Cord Unit of Conradie Hospital.”
The group operates at Harmony Park on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and will close the project for the season this coming weekend.
Since late last year the group has engaged several City departments, including correspondence with Patricia van der Ross, Mayoral Committee member for Community Service and Health, to establish a project for the 2022-’23 season, following notices from the City of Cape Town that it will need to halt the project and, consequently, was withdrawing support for it (“Resort casualties proactive,” DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 19 October).
But the group kept persisting, and at the end of October received positive feedback from the City (“Project not nose-diving just yet,” DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 27 October).
“Our focus is also on wheelchair accessibility at Harmony Park, to make it easier for the disabled to enjoy these facilities,” said Hartnick.
