Vietnam Swimming & Lifesaving Company attended the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Perth Australia, December 2023. Prior to the conference Graham Buckley and Garry Seghers took part in the sea swimming event on Rottnest Island and met the local inhabitants the Quokka pictured here with Garry.
The Conference dinner was on Wednesday evening, where we were greeted by a Koala and entertained by local Aboriginal music, stories and dances recognizing their continued connection to land, waters and communities, paying respect to Elders past and present.
Graham gave his presentation on the last day:
Swimming for Safety – The challenges and opportunities of open water swimming lessons in rural Vietnam. Authors – Graham Buckley and Dao Le Thi Anh from Hue Help, Hue, Vietnam.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of using open water locations to teach survival swimming and water safety skills to primary school children in rural Vietnam. Vietnam has the highest number of child drowning cases in South-East Asia. Hue Help’s Swimming for Safety programme trains school teachers in Vietnam as swimming teachers, aiming to build capacity within the education system to implement the WHO’s recommendation 3 on drowning prevention – teaching school aged children swimming and water safety skills (Using the information provided by IFSTA in 2011 after the WCDP held in Da Nang Vietnam).
The full abstract is available on page 352 of the Conference Abstract book.
