Editor’s Note: Stivi Cooke is an Australian currently based in central Vietnam.

Everyone’s aware of how dangerous the traffic in Vietnam can be. But do you know that between one and 10 children, per day, drown in Vietnam?

>> An audio version of the story is available here

It’s an irony that Australians living on one of the driest continents in the world, yet surrounded by 25,000 kilometers of coastline with more than 10,000 beaches, grow up learning the dangers of water and the need to learn to swim well enough to survive in the water.

My mother and my elementary school both insisted on swimming lessons, although swimming is not a compulsory subject in Australian education anymore. Interestingly, official organizations in my country such as the Royal Life Saving Society are calling for the re-introduction of mandatory swimming lessons for all elementary school children.

Vietnam has a 3,260 kilometer-long coastline with hundreds of beaches and 41,900 kilometers of waterways, rivers, streams and so on, so it should place the need to acquire swimming skills squarely in the nation’s curriculum.

It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity to learn. Interaction with the water in Vietnam for children is a daily activity exposing them to the hazard with little knowledge of how to deal with problems in the water. 

Children swim in a river in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Children here cross, wade or walk or take river boats at rivers and creeks to go to school. Many children help their parents with fishery or farming activities next to water reservoirs, tanks and ponds. Heavy seasonal rain in the mountains, flash flooding and occasional urban flooding add to all these risks. Adding to the dangers is the extensive lack of safe, strong bridge crossings for the general rural population.

Water safety is mostly taught as a textbook activity but should be a compulsory rural school subject as well. With few educational resources available or money for swimming pools or paid instructors – the problem remains difficult to resolve or improve without outside assistance.

This brings me to the great work being done by Swim Vietnam, a non-governmental organization founded by Joanne Stewart in 2008. Since its inception, over 9,500 children have been taught to swim, over 150 adults trained as swimming teachers and Swim Vietnam is operating seven swim schools, according to its website. Over 20,000 primary school children have attended Swim Vietnam's classroom-based water safety education presentations. 

Swim Vietnam is a shining example of what can be done instead of throwing our hands in the air and imagining the problems are too big to overcome. They also run courses for pool lifeguards, First Aid and CPR, which is an emergency technique to help people breathe and pump blood through their bodies until professional medical help can arrive.

Adults teach kids how to swim in a river in Dong Thap Province. Photo: Tuoi Tre

As for the schools – got a teacher who loves swimming? Get them trained with Swim Vietnam!

I’d love to see schools develop coloring-in competitions on water safety or perform a school play based on this theme. How about “Know the water before you swim” T-shirts? It would be fantastic to have swimming safety slogans on kids’ helmets! Media! Where are you? It’s your duty to promote the cause of children being safe too! What do you think? Do you have a good idea that can help spread the lesson?

It’s my own opinion and nothing to do with Swim Vietnam – I’d like to see Vietnamese authorities take a stronger legal and patrolling role in checking and insisting on real fencing, or at least strong barriers, around water holes, retaining tanks for agriculture and industry and especially around construction sites where kids are likely to play in their free time. I know the laws are there yet I feel they should be more strictly enforced.

Parents must be diligent in monitoring and reminding their children about water safety, and adults must warn children against or forbid them from swimming in areas they suspect or know to be unsafe. We must break past the wall of not telling other people what to do, at least in the case of kids not obeying rules in traffic and in this case, playing in areas that parents, police and security guards know to be unsafe.

So speak up, help out, spread the lesson, put up a fence and check on where the kids are and what they are doing.

And above all – have a safe and happy summer swimming and having fun!