On 23 May, 2013, Thanh Nhien News ran an article on Things going swimmingly for Scottish woman in Vietnam.
The article, which also appeared n its monthly magazine, Vietweek, speaks with Jo Stewart from Swim Vietnam. Swim Vietnam is a beneficiary of several of the Vietnam Swans fund raisers, including the ANZAC Friendship Match.
An abridged version of thge article appears below (click here for original article).
Four sixth graders drowned last week in a hydropower reservoir in central Vietnam.
As tragic as these deaths are, the greater tragedy is how often this happens. Official figures show that more than 6,000 children drown every year in Vietnam, a country with long coastline, numerous rivers and lakes, but apparently few swimmers or qualified swimming instructors.
A woman from Scotland is doing what she can to change this situation, believing swimming lessons for local children as well as adults will go a long way.
“These types of deaths could have been prevented if the children knew how to swim and survive in the water,” said Joanne Stewart, who set up Swim Vietnam in Hoi An five years ago.
Located in the flood-prone province of Quang Nam, the club has taught more than 4,500 children to swim and trained around 120 adults as swimming teachers.
It holds a total of 32 classes each day for children between 6 and 14 years old (Ed’s note: the original article incorrectly states that only 8 classes are held each day. In fact, Swim Vietnam runs 8 classes in 4 venues each day for a total of 32 classes).
“Ideally we like to teach younger children, as the younger we can teach them to swim, the quicker we can protect them from drowning,” Stewart said…
The program was planned for three to six months at the time, but Stewart has managed to find many sponsors around the world and build a Vietnamese management team from local volunteers…
Then two “very important things” happened to the club, she said. The Vietnamese owners of Yaly clothing company in Hoi An built a swimming pool in a primary school for it, and, thanks to an Australian volunteer, the Australian National Body of Swim Teachers (AUSTSWIM) agreed that the club could run AUSTSWIM training courses.
Two of the senior teachers in the club have become the first Vietnamese to complete their training as AUSTSWIM presenters, allowing them to train new people as AUSTSWIM teachers, who are recognized internationally…
Stewart also said that she would love to have the government’s attention to expand the program to other regions.
Read the article in its entirety now!
To read the full, unabridged article:
- Click here for the online version
- Click onto Vietweek 0513 to download the original article in pdf format
