In May 2022, Sri Lanka Life Saving in partnership with their local member club, Puttalam District Life Saving Club, delivered a train the trainer programme in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. This was the initial stage of a project supported by the Royal Life Saving Society with funding from Speedo International.
The purpose of the project was to deliver knowledge, skills, programmes and resources to build a sustainable Swim for Safety programme in disadvantaged communities in the North-Western Province, including the areas around Puttalam.
The objectives of the project are to increase the number of Swim for Safety instructors by 25; educate at least 300 children to be safe in, on or near water; increasing the number of people with livelihoods through water safety education; and provide a humanitarian programme that inspires people to be more active.
By the end of June, the programme had not only achieved the train the trainer element of the project but had delivered three Swim for Safety (SFS) programmes.
The Swim for Safety programme enables children to be competent in swimming; be able to identify the measures needed and to be taken to prevent drowning; the skills to do basic intervention if someone else is drowning and to administer CPR and basic first aid.
Each Swim for Safety programme trained 85 students, so the reach of the programme currently stands at 255 beneficiaries gaining water safety and drowning prevention training.
The second phase of the Swim for Safety programme is currently underway in the North Western Province and will train a similar number of children as in the first phase.
Our congratulations go to Sri Lanka Life Saving and Puttalam District Life Saving Club on their hard work to ensure this region of Sri Lanka has a sustainable drowning prevention programme in place.
