OUR WORK IN ZANZIBAR
Working in Zanzibar since 2007
Our marine conservation work in Zanzibar is built on a research partnership inside the Menai Bay Conservation Area that’s run continuously since 2007, supported by Dr. Narriman Jiddawi, a marine biologist and Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. Alongside it, our teaching program works with nursery schools and adult learners in Jambiani to build confidence and opportunity through English.
Local experts guide both strands of the work. Marine scientists direct the conservation research, and local teachers guide the structure of the English programs we support. Our role is to add capacity where it’s needed: collecting the data that helps protect dolphin populations and reef health, and giving learners more time, attention, and consistency in the classroom.
Dolphin & Marine Conservation
Since 2007, our marine conservation project has worked inside the Menai Bay Conservation Area, based out of Kizimkazi, one of Zanzibar’s most significant stretches of coastline for dolphin activity. The work centers on monitoring dolphin pods: recording their size, behavior, movement, and interactions with tourist boats, data that feeds directly into guidelines for more ethical, lower-impact dolphin tourism.
Alongside dolphin monitoring, the project runs ongoing coral reef and seagrass surveys, tracking reef condition and flagging areas that may need protection or recovery. The scientific program is supported by Dr. Narriman Jiddawi, a marine biologist and Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, which gives the research real academic grounding.
A third part of the work is community-facing: engaging local boat operators and tourism stakeholders on dolphin-friendly practices, approach distances, boat speeds, and time spent with pods, so that conservation and local livelihoods can work together rather than against each other.
Teaching & Community Support
Our teaching program runs across Jambiani’s nursery schools, including Mwendawima, Kikadini, and Sirajatil, where mornings focus on early English learning through songs, games, and creative activity, alongside everyday habits like hygiene and hand-washing. Afternoons shift to adult English classes at the Community Center, where many learners are working toward better opportunities in tourism and hospitality.
Beyond the classroom, the teaching and marine teams combine on a weekly community project: painting a local school, running a beach or town clean-up, or supporting another shared priority identified by the community itself.
Community Development Work
Alongside our medical work, we run a set of ongoing community programs across Livingstone, in education, women’s empowerment, food security, and the environment.
Reading Club, Math Club, and Holiday Club give local students extra contact hours in the subjects that most affect whether they progress to secondary school, alongside teaching assistance in partner schools.
The Girl Impact program, women's groups, and menstrual hygiene workshops build confidence and opportunity for girls and women in the community. The Women's Group, a craft and village-tour business, gives members an independent source of income.
Eco Club, eco-bricking, litter picks, and the Kulakupa orchard project teach young people to care for the environment their community depends on, while cutting down on plastic waste and expanding local tree cover.
Zanzibar
How we measure our impact
The clearest way we measure our impact is by the number of boat operators we have trained. Dolphin-watching tours are one of the main ways visitors experience Menai Bay, and how boats approach the animals matters. Through our ethical tourism training, local boat drivers learn how to operate around dolphins in ways that protect them. So far, 40 drivers have graduated, and each carries our license.
On top of this, everything our team records on dolphins, fishing activity and the health of coral reefs and seagrass goes to our co-founder and main project partner for the Marine Conservation Project, Dr. Narriman Jiddawi. She is well known for her work in marine science in East Africa, and she and her associates use our data for further research.
Over time, this long-term record also gives us evidence. Our monitoring lets us see how dolphins behave around boats whose drivers have been trained in ethical practices, and we hope it will help make the case to the government for stronger regulation of dolphin tourism.
How We Measure Impact
Our team tracks work quarterly: course results, club attendance, and recovery outcomes
for home-based care patients. These figures come from the team’s monitoring data.
Clinical support, home-based care visits, first aid courses, HIV education, and school health clubs address health needs in the community. Course outcomes are measured with pre- and post-testing.
menstrual hygiene kits distributed to students in 2025
of last year’s tracked students progressed to the next grade
unwanted teenage pregnancy rate among tracked girls, down from ~20% in 2023
Math Club, Reading Club, teaching assistance, and Holiday Club provide additional learning time in subjects that support progression to secondary school.
average reading-age improvement for Reading Club students at one school in a single yea
of volunteer teaching delivered in the first half of 2026 alone
average improvement in Math Club scores from pre-test to post-test
The Girl Impact program, women's groups, boys clubs, and menstrual hygiene workshops support knowledge, confidence, and local role models.
menstrual hygiene kits distributed to students in 2025
of last year’s tracked students progressed to the next grade
unwanted teenage pregnancy rate among tracked girls, down from ~20% in 2023
Financial literacy and the Women's Group support independent income.
earned on average by each woman in the Women’s Group across 2025, up from a few hundred kwacha a quarter in 2023
of last year’s tracked students progressed to the next grade
women now earning a monthly income from village tours
Eco Club, eco-bricking, litter picks, and reforestation help young people care for the environment their community depends on.
eco-bricks made, nearly 1.5 tonnes of plastic kept off the streets
fruit trees planted in 2025 through the Kulakupa orchard project
of plastic waste collected across 14 community litter picks in 2025
View a full map of our impact.
Join us
as a school
Bring your students on a high school or IB CAS program that combines marine conservation fieldwork with community work in Jambiani.
as a university
We’ll build a faculty-led or study abroad marine conservation program around your curriculum, with fieldwork alongside our research team.
as an individual
Volunteer on dolphin monitoring or teaching, or join our marine conservation and dolphin research internship.
