2023: Our highlights in 2023

7 Aug, 2024

2023 in Review!

2023 has come to an end and it’s the time for people to look back on what they have done throughout the year. It has been a great year for Hue Help (HH). We worked so hard with many great achievements on our two main programs: Swimming For Safety (SFS) and Hue Children’s Shelter (HCS). Let’s have a look at our highlights in 2023:

January started with a Water Safety Education for nearly 300 grade-6 students in Hue City. We got invited by Hue Youth Center to equip the students with water safety skills and awareness.

In February, under the sponsorship of The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), HH was invited to be one of the main trainers of Water Safety Education Trainings organised by The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) in Da Lat and in Hue. We trained 80 instructors from southern and central provinces in Vietnam.

At the end of February, HH had a meeting with HCS and was awarded a certificate of merit from the chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee.

March began with a farewell party at HCS. We said goodbye to Thi, who first entered the shelter in 2002. HH had been supporting education and extra activities for Thi since then. After a long time at the shelter, Thi was grown-up enough and had a job so she could move out and live on her own. We had a lot of touching moments during the party.

In the same month, we trained 30 participants from Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province on how to teach water safety skills for children. This session was organized by Swim For Life and sponsored by GHAI.

April started in a northern mountainous area! Under the sponsorship of The United Nations International School in Hanoi, HH organised a survival swimming course for 120 students in Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province. Students here did not have the opportunity to learn survival swimming and water safety skills, so this course was so useful for them.

Also, HH continued supporting Hue Youth Center with a water safety training for 185 secondary school students in Dien Loc district, Thua Thien Hue.

May was here and it was the beginning of our busy time. HH attended The Capacity Building for Drowning Prevention in Phu Tho and Can Tho, which was organised by The Department of Physical and Education (Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)) and sponsored by GHAI. During the training, HH was in charge of teaching water safety and safe rescue skills. It was a 2-day training and we trained over 280 participants who are PE teachers and school health workers from all over the country.

End of May in Malaysia! We had the opportunity to attend the South East Asia Drowning Prevention Forum and Workshop in Penang, Malaysia. We were so proud that we had a presentation on drowning prevention activities in Vietnam.

Welcoming June with a lot of activities! We organized a 5-day Swimming Teachers’ Training in Ho Chi Minh City which was sponsored by Decathlon Foundation and Decasafe. We trained 10 staff from 8 shelters in Ho Chi Minh and they would train 450 children on survival swimming.

In mid June, we continued training for 140 PE teachers and school health workers around the country on water safety and safe rescue skills in Phu Yen with the same training of MOET.

Then we had another 5-day Swimming Teacher’s Training in Phu Loc district. Under the sponsorship of Laguna Lang Co and Banyan Tree Foundation, we trained 6 teachers on teaching survival swimming and they would go on to teach for 180 vulnerable students in Phu Loc. The swimming lessons took place at a beautiful beach near their school, Binh An.

Summertime was also a great time for HCS. On 1st June, as usual, we always celebrate Children’s Day at the shelter. This year, we were so lucky to enjoy special musical performances from the kids. On 20th June, the kids started their summer swimming course with Ms Katie. This summer, Katie trained for 10 kids and all of them became very skillful at swimming. They all could swim for over 200m now. They also joined a 5km journey of Hue Marathon “Heritage Journey”. Almost every year, we tried to let the kids join some outdoor physical activities to inspire them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

July was the busiest month of SFS. On 3th July, under the sponsorship of GHAI, we organized a 5-day Swimming Teachers’ Training for 17 school teachers in Thua Thien Hue. This year we trained over 600 vulnerable children on survival swimming. And unlike the previous years, this year we hosted a Launching Ceremony for Child Drowning Prevention Program in Thua Thien Hue because we wanted to engage local authorities and other local departments in the program to spread our message on child drowning prevention as well as make it bigger in the future.

Then we attended another training of MOET in Thanh Hoa to train for 140 more participants. Annually, we always celebrate World Drowning Prevention Day on 25th July. This year we attended a really big event called Family Day in Hanoi. We had more connections with other organisations and people working in this field.

July was also special to the kids at HCS as they had a 2-day trip to Dong Giang Heaven Gate, Quang Nam province with lots of caves, lakes, waterfalls and temples. We went sightseeing, went swimming and explored ethnic minority culture. Special thanks to Mr. Kees Smit for sponsoring this trip and bringing joy to the kids.

In mid August, we organised a 2-day Refresher Training for 6 teachers in A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue under the sponsorship of Il sogno di Lan. They trained for 60 vulnerable children in the area. The lessons took place at a nearby stream which was carefully risk assessed. A Luoi is known as the mountainous area in Hue with lots of lakes, dams and rivers. That’s why drowning prevention programs like SFS are very essential in this district.

August was also the time to say goodbye to summer. The kids and HH had a day trip to Binh An beach to get refreshed and get prepared for a new school year. We had a great time swimming on the beach and enjoying tasty seafood.

Say hello to September with great news from Nga, a kid at HCS. Nga became a freshman of Hue University of Hospitality and Tourism. The achievement was a result of her hard work and constant effort during school time. We were very proud of Nga and looked forward to seeing her in a new journey.

September was amazing with our first installation of life rings in Hue. We coordinated with the People’s Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province to install 6 life rings at 2 locations in Hue city: Da Vien bridge and Phu Xuan park. The introduction of these public life rings contributes to the prevention of drowning accidents in Hue city, as well as raises people’s awareness on drowning prevention.

October in India! HH had the chance to participate in the Water Rescue and Resuscitation Workshop in India which was organised by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), World Health Organisation (WHO) and Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth (RLSSC). HH has worked in this field for many years so this workshop was a great opportunity for us to learn how to implement rescue and resuscitation training more effectively with low-resource. We also had the chance to give a short presentation and networked with other participants from different organisations.

On the last day of October, HH coordinated with the Department of Education and Training of Thua Thien Hue to organize a Review Workshop sponsored by GHAI, with the participation of representatives of local departments and authorities. We were so proud of what we did for the drowning prevention program this year. 630 vulnerable children learned survival swimming and of these, 446 children could swim for at least 25m and perform back float for at least 90 seconds. We also got feedback and suggestions from the participants to improve the program in the following years.

In December, we still had a lot to do. HH cooperated with the Department of Education and Training of Hue City to organize the session ‘Water Safety Education’ for more than 400 students at Phu Thanh and Phu Mau Secondary School in Thua Thien Hue province. The students learned how to stay safe in water, what to do in an emergency, how to wear life jackets correctly, and how to perform land-based rescue safely.

Running in December! HH and children at the shelter participated in a marathon on the International Day of People with Disabilities. Even though the weather was not favorable, the children completed the 5km distance with excitement and joy.

Flying to Perth, Australia to end the great 2023! HH was very honored to attend the World Conference on Drowning Prevention (WDPC) in Perth. There were over 700 representatives from over 52 countries around the world. Our role at the conference was as attendee and presenter. We were proud to have a presentation called  “Swimming for Safety – The challenges and opportunities of open water swimming lessons in rural Vietnam.” We also had the opportunity to share our work with the wider drowning prevention community, as well as learn from other organisations working to prevent drowning. Thank you to the event organisers Royal Life Saving Society – Australia and Surf Life Saving Australia and our partners at GHAI for the opportunity to attend.

2023 has been a great year for us, we have earned not just local and national wide achievements but also international recognitions. However, there is a huge amount of work to be done ahead. Drowning is still the leading cause of child death in Vietnam. Hue Help will keep working on it to address this issue, along with our partners, sponsors and donors. Our mission is to improve the health, education and future prospects of children in Vietnam. We cannot make it happen for the children without the support of our donors.

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