This year, Hue Help partnered with LuxDev to deliver our Swimming for Safety programme in three districts in Thua Thien Hue province. Under this programme, we provided training for 15 new teachers and refresher training for 15 existing teachers, who provided training for approximately 1,200 children. LuxDev is supporting Swimming for Safety as part of it’s wider programme on climate change adaptation (project VIE/455). We are really grateful to the partnership of the Luxembourg Development Agency – and we hope to be able to continue to collaborate to provide these vital skills in communities next year.
We also partnered with Laguna Lang Co resort. Under Laguna’s CSR scheme they sponsored swimming lessons for approximately 300 children. We hope to be able to continue this programme next year to continue to address the leading cause of child death in the community.
In addition to our work in Thua Thien Hue, this year we also partnered with the Vietnam Sports Administration, part of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, to provide swimming teacher training to 23 participants in Ninh Binh province. This was our first time delivering training with the Vietnam Sports Administration, and is part of our wider aim to support national drowning prevention initiatives and advocate for best practice, high quality survival swimming training.
Finally, we produced a series of educational videos with the national education TV channel – VTV7 – on drowning prevention. This is the second year running we have partnered with VTV7 to raise awareness about drowning and provide education to children and parents on prevention and rescue.
2019 has been a great year for Swimming for Safety – but there is a huge amount of work to be done. Drowning remains the leading cause of child death in Vietnam, with over 2,000 children drowning annually. Hue Help will continue to address this challenge, along with partner organisations, in to 2020 and beyond.
