SwimSafe Danang is reaching out to children a long way from the city centre.
Three of SwimSafe Danang’s portable pools are located outside the city in rural locations. The furthest of the three locations, Hoa Khuong school, is located 20km outside of the city.
Rural areas in Vietnam have a higher number of open water sources than the urban areas, so learning survival swimming skills for children in the rural areas of Danang is vitally important to reduce their risk of drowning.
Several schools have scheduled academic classes in such a way that they will not conflict with swimming lessons during the vacation period. This initiative of the school principals helps to ensure that all classes are full with interested students.
All three rural venues, Hoa Khuon, Hoa Tien and An Phuoc have excellent attendance in the classes throughout the day. Response to the program in these rural areas has also been overwhelmingly positive and highlights the need for survival swimming skills. At Hoa Tien school, a father who was watching his eight year old daughter’s lesson said he had pulled her out of a pond when she was a toddler. He was quite surprised when she started the lessons that she wasn’t afraid of the water, but he was very happy the school was giving the lessons now.
One teacher at An Phuoc school said the pool had added an important activity to their school and was positively affecting the summer vacation of the students.
If you would like to support the SwimSafe program in teaching life saving swimming and water safety skills to children in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand please donate to the Global Drowning Fund.