Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC) - Kru Payu Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program (CWSDPP)
November has been a very slow month for our survival swim and water safety program; at the beginning of the month we completed our survival swim and water safety classes for 4th-graders from the Wat Sri Ping Muang and Wat Chiang Yuen Schools. At mid-November the Chiang Mai Municipal Schools began their fall break, so we will not start our programs again for the seven remaining schools until early in the month of December. We have an indoor heated pool, so even if outside temperatures fall, we can still offer our classes.
In Phrao, working with our Warm Heart Foundation partners, we will finish our survival swim and water safety instruction for the last of the seven schools we have on this year’s schedule during the month of December, weather/temperatures permitting. We will move this last class to March, if temperatures drop in our outdoor pool.
Finally, due to Covid-19 our CMIRC fundraising efforts have been greatly reduced. This will challenge our ability to continue our Chiang Mai – based component of CMIRC’s Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program in the future. Instruction at each school costs CMIRC approximately 20,000 Baht (US$660) and we fund eleven schools. That’s 220,000 Baht (US$ 7,260) for the year. We provide 15 hours of instruction, all equipment, instructional costs, and the pool for over 300 children each year, so the average cost per child is approximately 700 Baht (US$23) per child.
This month we’d like to thank the Thai Thaim Foundation of Park Rapids, Minnesota, USA for its renewed support and Rotarian Bob Ashley for his continued support, and of course all the generous donors and supporters of the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program.
We started this program in 2015 and we are still going strong and serving more children every year thanks to our wonderful sponsors and CMIRC volunteers! If you wish to help please contact Project Champion John Schorr at johnkschorr@gmail.com for more information.