Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC)-Kru Payu Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program (CWSDPP)
Unfortunately, due to the continued resurgence of Covid-19 in Chiang Mai, municipal schools here will continue to be closed until at least January, 2022. Since our Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program is school based in Chiang Mai and in Phrao, we have had to suspend our programs until schools reopen for in-class learning. We look forward to being back in our swimming pools with the 4th-graders hopefully in January, at least in Chiang Mai where our partner Bronco Kids Sport Club has a heated indoor pool for our swim classes. If the Banya Migrant Learning Centre in Phuket reopens in January, we should be able to start there too, since Phuket is warm in winter. Our classes in Phrao, where it is quite cold in winter and where we only have an outdoor pool available, will have to wait until February or March to start swim lessons.
In spite of these delays in starting this year’s Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program, our CMIRC CWSDPP team continues to work to build opportunities for future expansion of our program and to incorporate new partners. CWSDPP team members Roger (left in photo), Clarence (not pictured), and I (right) recently met with Peter Boonjarern (center), Director, ASEAN Gateway Office, Indiana University Office of the Vice President for International Affairs. Khun Peter is now based in Chiang Mai and he was quite interested in connecting CMIRC’s CWSDPP with Professor William Ramos, Director of Indiana University School of Public Health’s Aquatic Institute. Professor Ramos has been very active in developing children’s water safety programs in Vietnam and there may be some interesting opportunities to collaborate in the future, a Zoom meeting with Prof. Ramos is being planned.
Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the generous support of our partners, sponsors and donors, so here is a list of these generous organizations!! This year we want to especially thank them for their patience as we have faced so many delays. Special thanks also to individual donors Richard Murray and a donor from Bangkok who supports the program in Phrao, and for the continued support from Ian Bushell.
If you wish to help, please contact Project Champion John Schorr at watersafety@cmirotary.org for more information. CMIRC Member Volunteer Hours for the Month of November: 14 (Chair, 8; Committee Members, 6).
CMIRC Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Team and Sponsors:
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