While we wait patiently for the beaches to open, 104 youths are being trained to welcome us back to the blue flag beaches of South Africa.
South Africa (27 January 2021) – The National Department of Tourism partnered with the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) to create youth employment through the Blue Flag Beach Stewards Programme.
While beaches have been closed, 104 newly-employed youths have been undergoing training. They will head back to the beaches in March to aid in beach management, data capturing, surveying and social assistance, including helping keep children safe.
There are currently 48 Blue Flag Beaches in South Africa. You can read all about them here. Blue Flag beaches are international accredited for having standards of excellence in water and beach environment quality, safety and security, amenities and environmental education.
In mid-December, 75 Beach Stewards reported for duty at 20 Blue Flag beaches along the South African Coastline. These stewards were placed to offer support with beach monitoring, visitor assistance, crowd control (encouraging Covid-19 physical distancing and mask-wearing), and incident management. They also had a pivotal role in arranging and running enviro-education events and edutainment at their beaches.
Stipends for the stewards, their tourism training and resources to support them are funded by the National Department of Tourism; with WESSA managing the stewards through beach and tourism establishment partners. The stewards’ groups were also equipped with cellphones, for capturing daily beach monitoring data and visitor surveys, using the COLLECT application. They were also tasked with sending out daily beach reports and updates, to Twitter handles assigned to each beach.
Get your child a name tag for ChildSafe at the Blueflag Tent. Don’t forget to wear your mask. Beach Stewards are here to make your beach trip enjoyable. #BeChildSafe #TBFNorthBeach pic.twitter.com/KDxFkv4MLC
— TBFNorthbeach (@TNorthbeach) December 28, 2020
For the December period that the beaches were open, the stewards also played a social role in reuniting parents with lost children and raising awareness around the exploitation of children in the beach tourism industry (as part of the international ChildSafe Programme).
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In March 2021, a new cohort of 104 youth will join this Tourism Blue Flag Project to support our Blue Flag beaches and create youth employment and skills training to build back the South African tourism sector.
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