Bayswater school holiday program gets kids summer ready

Many children have headed back to school today, and some return far more water safe than they were two weeks ago! In the lead-up to summer Royal Life Saving Society WA, in partnership with our Bayswater Waves endorsed swim school, ran a special Multicultural Swimming Program for children aged 5-11 during the October school holidays.

The program, supported by the Swim and Survive Fund, aimed to tackle statistics which show that those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds are at an increased risk of drowning. Alarmingly, in the last 5 years there’ve been 50 drowning deaths in WA involving members of the CaLD community, which makes up 37% of all drowning deaths.

The program was promoted through key multicultural groups including the Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre, Edmund Rice & Nyoongar Wellbeing & Sports, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the children who took part. In these communities there is a far greater chance of children missing out on learning swimming and water safety skills as there is not such a focus on the importance of swimming education within their culture.

Royal Life Saving is working to break down these barriers to participation, and appreciates the willingness of Bayswater Waves to host programs such as this. We’d love to see more swim schools and aquatic centres across WA take part in providing this vital education to at-risk children in their local community.

It’s exciting to think that the children who were involved in the recent program have learnt these important skills just in time to help them to stay safe around water throughout the summer period.

Learn more about how you can be involved in such programs at the link below.