Preventing 5000 children from drowning in Cambodia

In low to middle income countries in South East Asia 25% of deaths in children are due to drowning. These deaths total more than the number of children who die from measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosis combined.

More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels and swimming pools.

Many children tragically drown in Cambodia because they have no or limited knowledge of water safety and do not know how to swim and the children who have a near drowning experience often receive ineffective resuscitation methods.

Drowning reduces the critical impact of other child health interventions. Children who drown have often already received immunizations, vitamin A supplementation and other nutritional support. They have often benefited from early childhood development programs and primary schooling. All these investments are lost when a child drowns.

In a living environment where water is all around drowning is a real and ever present danger for the children of Cambodia!

Drowning is preventable! There are effective drowning interventions that work in all stages of childhood and that are cost-effective. A child taught how to stay safe in and around water, how to effectively perform life-saving resuscitation skills and how to swim have these survival skills for life! Building a child’s capacity in drowning prevention will also build a community’s capacity in drowning prevention. Children will and do pass on their learning to others!!

Helpcode is actively working with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports to continue their mission to build on the current Drowning Prevention Program in country and increase the programs geographical reach nationally to enable all children in Cambodia to benefit.

The country has been significantly impacted by the COVID 19 Pandemic with schools closed since February 20 2021, government residential zonal lockdowns in place in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Kandal and restrictions in place on public gatherings and regional travel.

Schools reopened across the country on November 15, 2021. Since schools reopening Helpcode have worked closely with School Directors and Community Leaders and have successfully operationalised a big program implementation push through the 2 weeks of November 2021 and the first 2 weeks of December 2021 before schools closed again on December 18, 2021. In those 4 weeks Helpcode were able to facilitate the DPP in 4 schools reaching 761 students of which 315 were female and 329 were male and we were also able to commence the Survival Swimming part of the program which was very exciting with 30 children having completed the program to date.