Initiated in 2018 by the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention, the ‘Joining efforts to offer water-safety education to children’ program has till date ensured that swimming pools are operated as safely as possible to teach how to swim for thousands of school pupils nationwide.

A swimming pool has been built at the Tran Nhan Tong Primary School located in Cam Le District, Da Nang, with financial aid from the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention.

The intention is to not only develop their swimming skills but also build resilience against natural disasters, actively contributing to the enhancement of their overall health and physical well-being.

As highlighted in a recent report from the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention, drowning incidents rank among the top 10 causes of death for Vietnamese children aged 5-14.

Despite a declining trend, Viet Nam still witnesses an annual average of 2,000 child fatalities due to drowning. The initiative to implement widespread swimming lessons and drowning prevention strategies for school pupils encounters significant challenges, particularly in terms of water facilities.

Besides, many schools lack swimming pools, contributing to only approximately 30% of high school students nationwide possessing basic swimming skills.

In 2018, the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention launched a campaign in recognition of the critical need to teach children water safety skills, and reduce drowning incidents.

A project to build swimming pools which are designed to prevent children from drowning was launched during the "Empowering Children to Cope with Natural Disasters" Gala. Accordingly, the Fund focused on providing support to  nationwide areas that often experience the most devastating long-term consequences of floods every year.

Flood-prone areas in Central Vietnam enjoyed benefits from the project as swimming pools with a protective dome cover were built in these areas. The intention is to increase the number of children in these areas to get access to swimming lessons.

At the same time, the effort to build swimming pools in poor areas of the south-western Viet Nam not only aimed to teach children how to swim but also make sure they do so in a safe setting, instead of learning to swim in canals.

Following a 5-year implementation period, the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention has successfully raised funds to build 142 school swimming pools in 36 Vietnamese localities.

Among these localities is Da Nang where 12 swimming pools have been built with financial support from this fund. A combined total of VND 137.3 billion VND has been spent on building swimming pools for school pupils across the country, of which, VND 88.3 billion was raised by the Fund and the remaining VND 49 billion came from local budgets. Each swimming pool project received VND 700 million in funding from the Fund. The pool has a length of 15.6 meters, a width of 6.6 meters, and a height of 1.2 meters.

The swimming pool with a protective dome cover can withstand the effects of climate change, and enhancing its longevity. It not only creates a safe place for thousands of school pupils nationwide to get access to the water safety and swimming education program, as well as help them enhance their resilience to natural disasters, thereby significantly contributing to the enhancement of their overall health and physical well-being.

Ms. Tran Thi Minh Ha, the Principal of Le Van Tam Primary School located in Thanh Khe District, Da Nang, shared that a mobile swimming pool was built in the school in  2020 with financial aid from the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention and the District’s budget.

Since 2020, the school has offered free swimming lessons to more than 2,000 students who were from Le Van Tam Primary School and others in Thanh Khe Tay Ward.

Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, the Principal of Tran Nhan Tong Primary School located in Cam Le District, Da Nang, shared that a swimming pool was built in 2021 with financial assistance from the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention

"The swimming pool has proven effective as it not only helps the school’s pupils improve their swimming skills but also helps them win prizes in district and city-level swimming competitions," Ms. Yen remarked.

In light of the program's success, the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention will continue its efforts to call for cash donations to implement this project in the following years. Focus will be on launching awareness raising campaigns in a bid to boost the construction of swimming pools in schools nationwide while engaging local communities in reducing drowning risk for all children. The intention is to keep children safe in and around the water, as well as raise awareness about child water safety among residents in disaster-prone areas, thereby helping reduce disaster risks caused by natural hazards.

Reporting by NGOC HA - Translating by HOAI TRANG