Vietnam: Swim for Life - Swim Lessons for Schoolchildren

GFA BRIDGES is supporting an initiative started by a GFA employee through a grant of € 4,000. The project aims to teach "survival swimming skills" to school children in Vietnam and educate them in first-aid and resuscitation.  Drowning is the leading killer of children in Vietnam. Across the country, an average of about 3,500 children drown every year. Worse, an unknown additional number of children suffer brain damage, and often these children end up permanently handicapped, which puts an enormous financial and psychological burden on their families, particularly affecting poor households. The vast majority of drowning deaths are preventable.

They tend to occur within 20 meters of the home and are often the result of unsupervised children falling into local water hazards.The project, which is conducted in cooperation with a primary school in Hanoi, aims to help school children aged six to eight, as well as their parents and teachers, become life-long multipliers and swim coaches.