Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC) - Kru Payu Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program (CWSDPP)
Unfortunately, the schools where we conduct our CWSDPP remain closed due to Covid-19. Since we are a school-based program, we have not been able to teach water safety, but there is still much to report for February.
It now appears that we will be able to restart our programs in Chiang Mai and Phrao when the new school year begins in May. Our swim instructor teams and facilities in Chiang Mai and Phrao are ready to teach survival swimming and water safety when they do! We are hoping to find additional funding, so that the 4th grade students who missed the program this year can be included in next year’s program.
Even though we have not been able to teach survival swimming this year our committee has been busy building new relationships and planning for possible program expansion in Hua Hin under the leadership of the Rotary Club Royal Hua Hin and now Kabinburi in Prachinburi Province near Bangkok, with the help of a local donor whose family recently experienced the drowning death of an 11-year-old girl on their property.
Our goal continues to be the reduction of the number of these tragic and preventable drowning deaths by helping partner NGO’s and Rotary Clubs build children’s water safety and drowning prevention programs in their communities. CMIRC provides the model, the training, and we do initial program assessments. Then the programs operate independently.
We have successfully expanded to Patong Beach under the leadership of the Rotary Club of Patong Beach and to Phrao with local coordination from the Warm Heart Foundation. We hope Hua Hin under the leadership of the Rotary Club Royal Hua Hin will be next.
Good news, we are now re-establishing our relationship with The Global Aquatics Project based In Brisbane, Australia. We had suspended our collaboration due to the Covid-19 restrictions in both Australia and Thailand. This program has led the efforts for our swim instructors to receive advanced on-site training and international accreditation. Director Eve Fraser is now retired and devoting her full-time volunteer efforts to The Global Aquatics Program. We look forward to future collaboration with The Global Aquatics Program in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
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 an anonymous donor, 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 February: Total: 20 (Chair: 15, Committee Members: 5).
CMIRC Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Team and Sponsors:
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