As one of the localities with the highest rate of fatalities, An Giang Province is stepping up swimming lessons for children. For the past few years, An Giang has carried out swimming lessons for children aged from 6 to 11 years old. Every year, the program teaches about 13.000 children how to swim and avoid drowning. This number is going to go up by 5 percent this year.
Attending these classes, children are taught how to swim and avoid drowning in just 10 days. For some special cases, children also receive extra classes to enhance their skills. All the tools and training for instructors are supplied by local authorities in An Giang.
According to the authority’s statistics, in recent years, we have recorded an average of 3 child fatalities from drowning each year in the province. In 2015, we are making efforts so that no child will die from drowning.
The swimming campaign has received great support and wide participations among locals in An Giang. Due to the lack of swimming pools, the program has yet to reach many children in far-flung areas, so more still needs to be done here as well as in other provinces in the Mekong Delta region.
