More than 20 Australian swimming coaches are teaching young children in a southern Vietnamese province how to swim and how to avoid drowning.

More than 550 young students, disabled children and elderly people in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang are taking swimming lessons from 21 instructors from the Australian Water Safety on the Mekong (AWSOM) Project.

According to Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, director of the My Tho sports center, the kids come from kindergartens and elementary schools across all wards and communes of My Tho City, Go Cong District, and Cho Gao District in Tien Giang.

Local children learn how to swim during a lesson. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The courses aim at providing local children with swimming and water safety skills.

Meanwhile, senior citizens are instructed with water exercises to improve their health.

The program is scheduled to take place from January 7 to January 12.

“The foreign coaches have been very dedicated in teaching our children,” Nguyen Hoang Minh, a father, stated.

A swimming class goes on at a local swimming pool. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The AWSOM Project was launched in 2012 by a charity organization based in Perth, Australia as a result of a successful volunteer tour to Vietnam in January of the same year.

A group of dedicated Australian teachers now travel to Vietnam on an annual basis to run drowning prevention classes for children and elderly residents in Tien Giang.

Young children prepare for their lesson. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The organization also offers training and professional development workshops in Vietnam as well as a scholarship program for Vietnamese swimming teachers.

As part of the scholarship, two Vietnamese swimming coaches are given a 10 to 15 day trip to Perth to sharpen their expertise every year.

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