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Suwat Hannarong – Founder
Suwat Hannarong, owner of Ao Nang Scuba and Founder of the Projects Abroad Marine Conservation Project in Ao Nang, Thailand, has lived an incredibly full and fascinating life. He has achieved so much in his lifetime that it is hard to believe it is all the work of one man!
Between the ages of 16 and 20, Suwat cycled every year with 200 contestants from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, a journey of 700 kilometres. Suwat also trained in Thai boxing and Tae Kwon Do, becoming the first National Champion of Thailand in Tae Kwon Do in 1970.
Between 1967 and 1971, Suwat went to Bangkok Institute of Technology to study for a degree in Engineering. With this knowledge and a wonderfully innovative mind, he invented a version of the ingenious energy-saving device that is now found in many hotels and offices across the world today; this is a tag attached to room keys that must be inserted into an apparatus in the wall in order to switch on the lights, TV, air conditioning and thermostatic units. On leaving the room and removing the tag, the apparatus switches to a ‘vacant’ mode, automatically turning off all electrically powered units and lights. He filed a patent for this device in 1992 and was awarded property rights in 1994.
After completing his degree, he married his first wife in 1972, and between them they had one daughter, Mod, who lives and works in Bangkok.
Throughout his life he has been incredibly active physically, achieving remarkable feats in two other disciplines; paragliding and scuba diving. In 1988, Suwat pioneered paragliding in Thailand, and with the help of some like-minded friends set up the Thailand Glider Club. They went on to discover all the present free flying sites in Thailand. He trained to become the first paragliding instructor in Thailand and opened a paragliding school, S.E.T. (Sky Expert Team), in 1994.
In 1986, Suwat began diving and attained NAUI dive instructor status in 1990. Since then, he has owned and run a number of dive schools in Ranong and Krabi provinces, both set on the beautiful Andaman coast. He has 14 years diving experience in the waters around Ao Nang. When underwater he has an aura of calmness that rubs off on all his pupils, allaying any fears they may have on their first few dives.
Despite suffering the almost complete destruction of a new dive shop in Khao Lak, an area which was hit badly during the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, Suwat dedicated much of his time to surveying villages along the Andaman coastline, looking for projects that could benefit from his contacts as a member of the Rotary Club. He secured funds from Rotary Canada, which he then used to help fishermen fix their damaged boats and also buy new equipment and cages to set up aquaculture projects. These have benefit to both the local fishermen and the marine environment by providing a constant source of food and income to the fishermen whilst at the same time reducing unsustainable sea fishing practices. Suwat also used the Rotary money to help several schools in Ranong, Phang Nga & Krabi provinces to buy toys, books, stationary, uniforms and computers for both elementary and high schools. This altruistic work still continues two years on with plans for more donations to many of the chosen schools.
In May 2005, Suwat joined Projects Abroad as the Project Director for the marine conservation project in Ao Nang. Since then, he and his second wife, Sao, have generously welcomed over 200 volunteers from all over the world into their house and played a pivotal role in the development of the project from its conception to where it stands now. In April 2007, the teaching and care projects moved from Bangkok down to Ao Nang, with Suwat consequently became Chairman for Projects Abroad Thailand, overseeing the success of all the voluntary projects and the happiness of all the volunteers that come to Thailand through Projects Abroad. Now that all three of the projects are fully established and running well, Suwat stepped down as Chairman in late 2007, allowing the respective Project Directors to develop the projects independently. This has given him more time to spend with his new-born daughter, Proud, and the rest of his family, Sao and their seven year old son Chane. However, he still remains actively involved with Projects Abroad staff and all the volunteers, in the capacity of host, and partner to Projects Abroad through Ao Nang Scuba.