“Swim for Safety” Program

As per the Drowning Prevention Report 2020, downing is the leading cause of death amongst children (100 children per annum) aged between 01-14 years. Besides, lack of swimming ability within the population was identified as a major contributory factor to drowning. So, It has been identified that increasing swimming ability of individuals is a fundamental need for preventing drowning deaths and related injuries.  Learning swimming and being safe in and around water are skills that should be available to all school children / individuals and developed, irrespective of location and socioeconomic status. Swim for Safety (SfS) programs could be conducted in both pools and open water locations as resources are available and deemed necessary. Since SfS and educating school children programs have been identified as the top priority action for the country in the “Drowning Prevention and Water Safety National Plan” for Sri Lanka, SLLS works very closely with the Ministry of Education to introduce Swim for Safety program as an extra curricular activity and create an avenue for every school child to learn.