Swimming For Safety

 

Drowning is the leading cause of death in children in Vietnam. But drowning is preventable.

Swimming For Safety provides children with knowledge and skills to be safe around water. 

Swimming For Safety

Drowning is the leading cause of death in children in Vietnam.

Over 2,000 children a year drown in Vietnam. Drowning kills more children than any single disease or infection – more than Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, Dengue and malnutrition – combined. But drowning is preventable.

Swimming for Safety trains school teachers as swimming teachers, who then go on to train children in survival swimming and water safety awareness. Since 2011, we have operated the programme in 9 provinces in Vietnam, training over 600 teachers and 16,000 children. 

Teaching school-aged children to swim is recommended by The World Health Organisation as an intervention to reduce drowning in countries with a high drowning burden. Our programme is delivered in line with this guidance, and in line with the Prime Ministers Decision 248/QĐ-TTg (2021 – 2030) on child injury prevention in Vietnam. 

How does it work?

We work in partnership with local and national authorities to identify schools for Swimming for Safety. We work with the schools and local communities to select suitable models for swimming training (e.g. swimming pools or open water).

We then train school teachers as swimming teachers, who then go on to train the children in their schools and communities. Students typically have 18 lessons, in which they learn swimming, water safety awareness and safe rescue skills. We monitor the lessons closely and provide ongoing support.

Our numbers

Teachers Trained

Children Trained

Provinces of Vietnam

Swimming for Safety Timeline

Our journey begins – We first launched ‘Swimming for Safety’ in rural districts in Thua Thien Hue.

We partnered with Thua Thien Hue Red Cross to implement this programme and were assisted by Phu Loc Education Affairs. This programme provided a swimming training course for Red Cross staff and swimming teachers. The Swimming Teacher’s Association (STA) partnered with us to train up to 30 swimming teachers, who then worked with 10 secondary schools at ten separate sites in the summers of 2011 and 2012. In total, these ten sites trained 2,400 children to swim.

Our partnership with Norwedgian Aid to Vietnam

Working with NAV, STA, Laguna Lang Co and British Business Group Vietnam

During the period, we expanded our program to 5 more districts in Thua Thien Hue to train 288 teachers and 7,514 children on survival swimming and water safety skills in total.

In 2013, we collaborated with Nordic Assistance to Vietnam (NAV) to carry out a rural swimming programme in July and August. This project provided water safety, swimming and first aid skills to elementary aged school children who are vulnerable to drowning in Central Vietnam’s most frequently flooded areas. In charge of technical aspects, Hue Help assisted with course organisation, risk assessments, and monitoring and evaluation. With the assistance of the Swimming Teachers Association (STA), four courses were held initially to train 119 school teachers. These teachers and swimming tutors then taught 1,696 school children from 31 schools in rural areas near Hue. In 2014, we provided training for 33 teachers in Phu Loc, who went on to train 1,696 in their community. In 2015, we continued our partnership with NCA/NAV, and expanding SFS in a further 5 districts. We trained 68 teachers and 2,394 children. In 2016, we keep working with NCA/NAV and STA to expand our model to a further five districts. We trained 101 teachers and 1,728 children.

 

Expanding our program to national level – Hanoi, Quang Tri, Hue and Nha Trang

In 2017, we ran a pilot programme in Long Bien district in Hanoi, funded by Hanoi Internatioanl Women’s Club (HIWC). In 2018, we worked with Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (GWHF) to train 30 teachers and hundreds of children to swim in rural districts in Quang Binh. We expanded our classroom based water safety education programme and provided swimiming teacher trainng in Hanoi and Nha Trang.

In summary, 51 teachers and hundreds of children were trained thanks to the support of HIWC, GWHF, Laguna Lang Co and BBG Vietnam. We worked with VTV7, a national educational channel, to be on He Vui Khoe Programme.  We also had the chance to attend a workshop in Tanzania hosted by RNLI, WHO and Panje Project.

First partnership with Luxembourg Development

More Teachers, More Children
We first worked with Luxembourg Development (LuxDev) and continued working with Laguna Lang Co to train over 1,300 children. Also, we delivered a Training of Trainers (TOT) course in Ninh Binh in direct partnership with the national Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism. Continued working with VTV7 to produce a series of child drowning prevention shows.

Challenging period of COVID-19 and new opportunities 

Maintain partnership with LuxDev and launched a publication on guidance to prevent drowning during COVID-19

With the continuing support of LuxDev, 1,200 students in Hue were trained on survival swimming and water safety skills. It took 2 years for the project to finish due to the pandemic. We also worked with Topas Travel to train 200 students on survival swim, 1,400 students on water safety skills and 10 teachers in Thanh Hoa province. Most importantly, The Ministry of Labours, Invalids, Social and Affairs (MOLISA), The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), Hue Help and UNICEF launched a publication giving guidance to prevent drowning during COVID-19.

Back to “new normal” – Our partnership with Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK/GHAI)

Thanks to our generous sponsors including LuxDev, Topas Travel, The United Nations International School in Hanoi (UNIS) and CTFK/GHAI, we trained 2,784 children on swimming, 200 children on water safety, 120 parents on water safety and 87 swimming teachers in total. Besides, we provided technical support for GHAI program in Quang Tri, Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi. Most importantly, we celebrated our first World Drowning Prevention Day on July 25th. Thanks to Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), we had the opportunity to attend a Survival Swimming Lesson Sharing Workshop in Tanzania.

Maintain our partnership with CTFK/GHAI and gaining global recognition

Continued working with GHAI and attended workshops in Malaysia, India and Australia

This year, we received huge support from CTFK/GHAI, UNIS, Il sogno di Lan, and Laguna Lang Co. We trained 39 swimming teachers, 1,000 students on water safety and 1,079 students on survival swimming in total.

2023 was also a year of travelling. We attended South East Asia Drowning Prevention Forum in Penang, Malaysia; Water Rescue and Resuscitation Workshop in Pune, India; and World Drowning Prevention Conference in Perth, Australia. We were very honoured to have a presentation for all those workshops and conferences.

Keep looking for support to prevent Vietnamese children from drowning

Partnership with CTFK/GHAI and Laguna Lang Co Sustainability

During 2024, we have trained for 04 swimming trainers who are qualified to lead a TOT course. With the sponsorship of CTFK/GHAI, we successfully trained 25 swimming teachers and 810 children. Laguna Lang Co Sustainability Fund continued to sponsor our SFS with the aim of training 6 teachers and 80 children on open water survival swimming. On 25th July, we worked with Thua Thien Hue Department of Labours, Invalids and Social Affairs to celebrate World Drowning Prevention Day 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Swimming?

Evidence shows that giving children swimming skills and water safety skills can help reduce drowning – and Vietnam has the highest drowning rate in South East Asia.

What do children learn?

We run a ‘Survival Swimming’ programme. Children learn basic swimming skills, along with water safety awareness and safe rescue skills so they do not put themselves in danger. Typically, children in our programme receive 18 comprehensive lessons.

Do you teach in open water or swimming pools?

We work in both open water (beaches, lakes, rivers) and pool environments, depending what is best for the local context. In low resource, rural situations we have found that open water sites can be a safe, low cost and sustainable method of ensuring children need to stay safe around water.

All our open water sites are carefully risk assessed on selection and reviewed daily before classes take place, and our swimming teacher training specifically trains teachers on the safe use of open water sites where applicable. Our first priority is always the safety of the children taking part in the programme.

How are your teachers trained?

Hue Help has been provided with technical support from the UK’s Swimming Teachers Association (STA) and the International Federation of Swimming Teacher’s Associations (IFSTA). Our comprehensive swimming teacher training programme runs over 5-6 days. 

How many children drown in Vietnam?

According to the latest statics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, over 2,000 children drown every year in Vietnam – nearly 6 per day – and the number in reality may well be higher. If a disease was killing 6 children pay day, it would be a public health emergency. Urgent action is needed to tackle this crisis.

What else do you do to prevent drowning?

In addition to our core programme of teaching swimming, we also:

Work with local and national authorities to advocate and advise on drowning prevention issues

Raise public awareness through social and conventional media.

Train and deliver Water Safety Education – we train school teachers to deliver classroom based water safety sessions.

Collaborate with other NGOs working in the sector to share best practice and work collectively with national authorities.

Got more questions? Get in touch and our team will get right back to you 🙂

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