The Global Water Safety & Drowning Prevention Rotary Club (GWSDPRC) chartered on UN World Drowning Prevention Day 25 July 2022
We are a cause based Rotary Club with a vision to create a platform for individual and communal growth, to encourage policy makers to incorporate learn to swim activities as basic education to ensure every child can swim before they leave primary school.
Our mission is to provide an opportunity for members to nourish their passion of aquatic education and supporting vulnerable communities by organising projects, coordinating fundraising, and participating in charitable initiatives to ensure communities have access to quality water safety lessons and every child can swim before they finish primary school.
Our club is made up of aquatic educators from 17 countries around the world. We meet on zoom twice a month across 8 time zones. We are a team of passionate aquatic educators and industry leaders who were committed to advancing access to quality swimming lessons. We’re focused on bringing minds together in a supportive, collaborative, and collective environment to save lives globally and attract people to Rotary through our results.
Since our charter in July 2022 we have delivered on 2 District Grants. The first in the Namayingo District, Uganda where we delivered lifesaving and fire safety training to first responders. Our second project, the Triple T Asia Tour 20232, saw a team travel from Australia to join our member in Thailand to train learn to swim teachers and provide an international qualification for participants to deliver learn to swim programs free of charge to local communities. We trained teachers from Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Koh Samui, Patong Beach and Phnom Penh.
Together we have written a program called the Rhythm of the Water to introduce scared beginners to the water in a safe and nurturing environment. This program has proven to be highly successful and elevated our programs beyond the basic skills training.
All swimming lessons are delivered free of charge to disadvantaged children. To support this we developed the Swimming Gift Suite of Programs. The Swimming Gift is a school swimming initiative. It is designed to raise funds by asking every Rotary club around the world to donate USD 650 to pay for one school to attend swimming lessons. To support this program we have developed the Triple T (Train the Trainer) program to provide an international qualification to learn to swim teachers. Added to this is the 2nd Dip program which collects quality second hand swimwear and equipment to address the barriers to participation by ensuring all children have the resources they need.
