Two Women's Only participants with their swim instructor at The Swim School Wangara

Multicultural women build vital swimming skills

Our Women’s Only Swim and Survive program continues to go from strength to strength, with 200 women participating across the Perth metro area this term. The aim of the program is for multicultural women to build their swimming skills, improve their health and wellbeing and engage with other women at their local aquatic facility in an environment that caters to their cultural needs.

Research shows that of the drowning deaths that occurred in WA over the past 10 years, 40% involved people who were born overseas, the largest proportion of any state or territory. Limited water safety awareness combined with alarmingly low participation levels in swimming and water safety programs are contributing factors in this over-representation of multicultural community members in drowning statistics.

In many cases swimming and water safety education is overlooked by new migrants due to barriers such as cost and availability of culturally appropriate programming. Royal Life Saving is working to address these barriers to participation so that swimming, lifesaving and community education programs are appropriate and accessible to all Australians.

The Women’s Only Swim and Survive program has been running since 2009 and continues to increase in popularity, now available at Cannington Leisureplex, Leisurepark Balga and The Swim School Wangara each term throughout the year. Weekday classes run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at all three locations, with weekend lessons also running on Sundays at Cannington.

The program is funded by Lotterywest and the Department of Home Affairs and managed by Royal Life Saving WA. If you’d like to find out more please click the link below.