Great news! We have successfully completed our Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program in all eleven of the Municipal Schools in Chiang Mai and another twelve schools in Phrao. This year, over 600 children have learned survival swimming and water safety in our programs. We still have another 60 4th-graders to teach at Wat Suan Dok School when students return from their October break in November. It has been a very successful year for the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club’s Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program!
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 14 in Thailand, with over 1,000 children drowning each year. We have been working for many years in Chiang Mai and Phrao to teach survival swimming and water safety to underprivileged 4th-grade students attending the municipal schools. We offer 15 hours of water safety and survival swimming instruction to our young students. To date, over the past eight years, at all of our programs, we have taught almost 4,000 students. Probably the best way to understand what we do is to view the program in action.
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to our partners in these projects: the Rotary Club Seattle 4, The Chiang Mai Municipal Schools, Bronco Kids Sport Club Pool, Kru Payu Swim, the Rotary Club Chiang Mai-Wattana, donor Richard Murray in Chiang Mai, Warm Heart Worldwide in Phrao, and a generous private donor in Bangkok who fully funds the Phrao program.