Scuba diving as new leisure sport for disabled

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31  -- There are no limitations for those with physical impairment, as now there are even those who use scuba diving as a leisure water sport and therapeutic activity in treating their own disabilities. 

Ambassador of DiveHeart Malaysia and Founder of Kids Scuba Dive Center, Syed Abd Rahman Syed Hassan, said DiveHeart Malaysia, which started in 2014, has assisted and trained more than 30 individuals with special disabilities. 

“We initially started with only two special disability divers who doctors and professors from the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (PPUM) recommended to us, and then we progressed to bigger numbers over the years. 

"Through the programmes that we conduct twice a year, such as our Island trips to Tioman in Pahang, Bidong in Terengganu, Mabul and Sipadan in Sabah, we show them there’s a bigger world out there which they can explore,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama at the International Special Education Exhibition 2019 here today. 

DiveHeart is a non-profit organisation (NGO) based in Chicago, the United States that specialises in assisting people with disabilities in water sports involving scuba diving. 

Operating since 2000, DiveHeart has assisted many communities such as the hearing and visually impaired, amputees and also war veterans who have become physically disabled suffering from spinal cord injuries. 

In Malaysia, the NGO is assisted by Kids Scuba, a Professional Association of Diving Instructors five- star dive centre based in Kajang, Selangor that provides the NGO with the facilities including all the equipment for scuba diving. 

The two organisations assist communities with disabilities, adults and children in training them for the underwater environment especially in scuba diving around Malaysia. 

Asked why scuba diving would become appealing for people with a physical impairment to join, Syed Abd Rahman said it is recommended by health physicians that people with disabilities, especially those suffering from spinal cord injuries, enter the water as a rehabilitation process and therapeutic exercise. 

“From my experience of the many spinal cord injury patients I’ve trained, based on their feedback ... they loved it whenever they are in the water, as the weightlessness environment reduces their neuropathic pain and the pain goes away for one to two weeks,” he said.

He added that in September his team will be heading to Perhentian Island in Terengganu to bring a group of children from a school in Besut, Terengganu, who suffer from hearing impairment, to experience the underwater atmosphere. 

Members of the public can find out more about DiveHeart at www.Diveheart.org or search www.kidsscuba.com

-- BERNAMA