REEFolution
At a glance
Grantee
REEFolution Foundation
Where
Mkwiro, Kenya
Program
Marine Habitat Restoration
Grant
2023 and 2025 Community Grants
Follow
Grantee spotlight · Kenya · 2023, 2025
She couldn’t swim. Now she’s rebuilding the reef.
Picture the reef off Mkwiro at the end of 2026. Fifteen thousand new corals growing along three kilometers of coast, and a village that knows how to look after them.
Mwanaisha couldn’t swim when she joined REEFolution as a Reef Ranger. Now she helps restore and monitor the reef, and can identify more than 1,000 species of fish, coral and invertebrates. Omar, the Lead Reef Ranger, leads restoration and helps train the team. This year Omar is working toward Divemaster and Mwanaisha toward Rescue Diver.
Rangers grow coral fragments in underwater nurseries, transplant them onto reef structures and monitor how they recover, all inside the 47-hectare Mkwiro Community Managed Area. REEFolution has worked with the community since 2016: more than 30 Rangers trained, around 6,000 square meters of reef restored and nearly a dozen studies published, with partner Pilli Pipa Diving supporting the diving behind it. Next comes research into heat-resilient corals and an inland coral lab.
They’ve taken the model up the coast too. A 2023 PADI AWARE Community Grant helped start a second project in the Diani-Chale Marine Reserve, working with the Mwakamba Beach Management Unit.
“We’re planting the seeds for an alternative livelihood and a healthier ocean that will last for generations to come.”
The REEFolution team
What the grant supports
15,000 corals
Outplanted along three kilometers of Kenyan coast by the end of 2026.
Rangers stepping up
Ongoing dive and restoration training, with Omar and Mwanaisha advancing to Divemaster and Rescue Diver.
A village on board
Around 90 visits to five schools a year, plus community meetings and workshops reaching around 1,500 people.
Watch
PADI AWARE community grants of up to US$10,000 go to PADI Dive Centers and community-based non-profits with an operating budget under US$1 million. Projects are judged on conservation need and community support, and the next round opens in 2027. The next local project is waiting on you.
