Hue Help – Project “Empowering Women and Girls through Water Safety and Swimming Skills to Prevent Drowning in Hue City, Central Vietnam”
On 18 October 2026, Hue Help, in partnership with the Hue City Association for Protecting Children’s Rights, organized a training course on water safety and drowning prevention for women in Phong Dien Ward. The event also marks the completion of the project’s targets: 350 girls trained in survival swimming and 300 women trained in water safety skills.
A practical day of training with the Canadian Embassy
The program was honored by the presence of Ms. Esther Van Nes, Counsellor for Political, Economic and Public Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam, who oversees the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), together with Ms. Vũ Tuyết Trang of the Embassy. Also joining the delegation were leaders of the Women’s Union, representatives of the Culture and Social Affairs Office of Phong Dien Ward, and leaders of the Hue City Association for Protecting Children’s Rights.
Over the one-day training, participants learned to:
- Recognize drowning risks and stay safe in daily life and during the rainy and flood season;
- Use life jackets correctly;
- Rescue someone from the shore using suitable, readily available equipment, avoiding impulsive actions that put the rescuer at risk;
- Practice first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), skills that can decide whether someone survives in the first critical minutes after an accident.
The classroom was lively. The women asked questions, practiced hands-on, and shared real situations they had faced at home and in their neighborhoods. For many, it was the first time they had held a life jacket, practiced chest compressions, or rehearsed a proper rescue.
Drowning prevention is more than learning to swim
Speaking at the event, Ms. Esther Van Nes stressed that preventing drowning is not only about learning to swim. It is about equipping people with the knowledge and skills to protect themselves, their families and their communities, especially in Hue, where rivers, lagoons and seasonal floods are part of everyday life.
For the people of Hue, water is woven into daily life: rivers, streams, lagoons, ponds and canals right beside the home. Water provides livelihoods, but it also carries risk, particularly for young children. Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children in Vietnam, and these tragedies often happen quickly and silently, in moments when an adult looks away.
Why this issue is urgent in Hue
Natural conditions carry real risk. Hue is crisscrossed by rivers and lagoons and is regularly affected by heavy rain and flooding, especially in the final months of the year. During the flood season, the danger rises as water levels climb quickly, ponds and canals are hidden, and a child can fall into the water in an instant.
Skills are not yet widespread. Many children, especially girls in rural and riverside areas, have never had the chance to learn to swim properly. Many adults also do not know how to rescue a drowning person safely or perform first aid correctly. When an accident happens, the first minutes matter most, yet they are also when panic and mistakes are most likely.
Prevention is always better than response. The right life jacket, an awareness of hazards around the home, or one person who can perform CPR in time can save a life. Investing in knowledge and skills is a lasting way to prevent losses that can never be made up.
Why empower women and girls?
The project made a deliberate choice to focus on women and girls.
In many families, women are the primary caregivers, present with children for most of the day around the kitchen, the water landing and the garden pond. When a woman has water safety knowledge and skills, the whole family is better protected. Women are also well placed to spread this knowledge through neighborhoods, extended families, and women’s groups.
Meanwhile, because of social norms and long-held biases, girls in many places have fewer opportunities to take part in physical activities and to be around water, including learning to swim. Making sure girls also learn survival swimming is a concrete step toward gender equality: every child, girl or boy, has the right to be safe, to learn essential life skills, and to face risk with confidence.
When a girl learns to swim, she gains more than the ability to protect herself. She gains confidence, better health, and the belief that she can master things that once seemed out of reach. When a woman learns to rescue and give first aid, she becomes a protector and leader in her community. That is what “empowerment” means for this project.
Visiting the Phong Xuan Primary School pool: hearing about positive change
After the training, the delegation visited the swimming pool at Phong Xuan Primary School, where girls took part in the project’s swimming lessons. Ms. Esther Van Nes and the delegation met and talked with local authorities, the school’s leadership, the swimming instructors, and girls who had learned to swim, to hear first-hand about the positive changes the project has brought.
The stories shared by the girls, their teachers and the community show the project’s value most clearly: girls who were once hesitant or fearful of the water now have the essential skills to protect themselves in an emergency.
Project completed: 350 girls and 300 women equipped with life-saving skills
The project “Empowering Women and Girls through Water Safety and Swimming Skills to Prevent Drowning in Hue City, Central Vietnam” has met its goals:
- 300 women in Kim Long Ward, Phong Dien Ward and Binh Dien Commune were trained in water safety, rescue skills and first aid;
- 350 girls in Kim Long Ward, Phong Phu Ward, Phong Dien Ward and Binh Dien Commune were equipped with essential survival swimming skills.
These 650 direct beneficiaries are not just a statistic. They are 650 new safeguards in the community. Each trained woman can pass on her knowledge to her family and neighbors, and each girl who can swim is better able to protect herself and help friends and relatives in need.
Acknowledgements
Hue Help sincerely thanks the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) and the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam for funding and standing with the project. We also thank the Hue City Association for Protecting Children’s Rights, local authorities, the Women’s Union, the leadership and teachers of Phong Xuan Primary School, and all instructors and participants who helped build a safer community for women and children.
The end of the project is not the end of the effort. Hue Help hopes to continue working with partners, authorities and communities to bring these skills to more wards and communes, so that no child, girl or boy, has to face the dangers of water unprepared.
