The Kids Are Back In The Water

Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC)-Kru Payu Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program (CWSDPP) 

We are back in the water!! The week of August 17 saw the first two schools of the twelve we will teach this year start their survival swim and water safety classes at our Bronco Kids Sport Club pools! Approximately 60 fourth-graders from the Wat Sridonchai and the Wat Pa Phaeng Municipal Schools will complete 10 swim and water safety lessons (90 minutes each) on a M-W schedule for Wat Sridonchai and T-Th for Wat Pa Phaeng. Both schools will complete the program the week of September 14, then it is on to the next two schools. In spite of the truncated school schedule this year due to Covid-19, we expect we will complete instruction for 350 children by May of 2021. We will teach all 4th-graders in the eleven Chiang Mai Municipal Schools and the Wat Suan Dok School, a new project being conducted in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai-Wattana and funded in part by the Safe Child Thailand Foundation Grant.

So, we have a busy year ahead with possibly as many as 800 children benefiting from our programs!

Here are some pictures which show the process on the first day:

1. Arrival at Bronco Kids Sport Club Pool

2. Checking for lice, children with lice cannot use the lockers, towels, etc. We are working on a program to treat and eliminate lice. An average of four or five children in each school cannot complete the survival swim program due to lice.

3. Water safety instruction.

4. Some basic swim techniques.

5. Bus back to school.

6. Good bye for today!

Our Team and Sponsors:

We are also supported by the Thai Thaim Foundation of Park Rapids, Minnesota, USA and Rotarian Bob Ashley and of course all the generous donors to the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club.

We started this program in 2015 and we are still going strong and serving more children every year thanks to our wonderful sponsors and CMIRC volunteers!