Just a reminder: SWIM Cambodia’s delivery partner for delivery of drowning prevention interventions is HTK. I know it’s been a while since we posted, sorry! SWIM Cambodia provide HTK technical advisory support, support for funding and leadership. Back in December 2023, SWIM Cambodia trained 14 new volunteers in the delivery of Water Safety & CPR education to children. Two lead trainers previously with SWIM Cambodia put on a new HTK shirt and became lead trainers with HTK.
Sarath Tek, Executive Director of HTK worked with the local education department and a local school to deliver teacher training to 32 schoolteachers. This ensures the sustainability of Water Safety education with the aim of one day having drowning awareness and Water Safety as subjects in the Cambodian school curriculum.
In the last year, over 570 children and 250 adults were taught drowning awareness and water safety education, and 390 children were taught resuscitation (CPR) skills.
Well done everyone!
A new team with lead trainers & volunteersStay close to an adult when you cannot swimLand-based reach rescue with rope and team workCPR practiceInterviewing children about their life in and around water in the last 2 days“Hands up, who knows?”CPR practice Interview with boy about his water behavioursObserving teaching practice The recovery positionSafe rescue demonstrationGroup activity about drowning riskRamo and Conrad – lead trainersAlways check the weather conditions before going in or near waterTalking through the water safety messages
Please consider giving a donation, small or large.
We have some exciting news about SWIM Cambodia delivering training to a new cohort of volunteers in Cambodia. This training will be delivered alongside our new local partner, HTK. Next week, two volunteer teams from iCAN British International School and Bambujaya Bilingual School will come together for teacher training. The three-day training will take place in Siem Reap. As part of the training, the two teams will teach children at Wat Chork Primary School in Siem Reap. So, meet the team!
Left to Right: Bambujaya Team: Som Song, Sokkorn Khong (Volunteer Lead), Sarath Tek (Exec. Director, HTK), Sounsrors Hor, Sreyteang Tea, Sreynich Song, and Socheat Nou. iCAN Team: Veasna Sin, SongHeng Poeng, Sokhary Yeun, and Korn Eam.
Learn about Cambodia
Siem Reap is a city and province in the north of Cambodia, where Angkor Wat lives. Angkor Wat, built in the 12th century, is a temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world.
Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia, in the south-central part of the country. The Mekong and Bassac rivers pass through Phnom Penh.
We need your help!
We need more funds to stay afloat, train more volunteers, and start paying staff to reach and teach more. Our aim is to begin teaching survival swimming skills next year; we can only do so with your support.
Could you donate either a one-off oran ongoing donation? Click below:
There will be more exciting updates and photos following the training delivered next week. Follow us on our social media sites and sign up for SWIM News.
SWIM Cambodia has been working hard to develop a local drowning prevention partnership. We believe that this collaboration will be strong and effective in keeping children safe against drowning all over Cambodia. We have been supporting the formation and registration of a local NGO (charity) in Cambodia. After a lot of collaborating, thinking, planning and work, registration is complete! The new Cambodian organisation is called ‘Hile Teuk Kampuchea’ which means ‘Swim Cambodia’ or literally ‘pull water (swim) Cambodia’. We will call it ‘HTK’ for short.
A lot of online planning meetings have been held by SWIM Trustees and the HTK board
Why a new National Organisation?
The SWIM Cambodia trustees, and Cambodian advisors believe that developing local leadership and a sustainable partnership through HTK will be effective in securing greater impact for the delivery of drowning prevention interventions. HTK will deliver water safety, rescue, survival swimming and CPR education to children, parents and carers. HTK will work to gain agreement with government ministries and local authorities with the aim of integrating drowning prevention interventions into the Cambodian school curriculum.
Meet the HTK Board
The new HTK logo
An HTK planning meeting (below) with the new board and advisors. The HTK team is made up of SWIM Cambodia trainers and other inspiring Cambodians who are passionate about drowning prevention for children.
The new HTK Office & Training Space
HTK’s new office and training space in Phnom Penh
Here, above, is the new HTK office in Phnom Penh (the capital city of Cambodia). The office is shared with one of one of our delivery partners, Youth Star. We love the new HTK sign!
Next steps
There is plenty of work ahead for SWIM Cambodia and HTK. These next steps include a huge amount of fundraising work, planning our first survival swimming project and the exciting job of recruiting and training new staff to keep many more children, young people and communities safe from drowning.
With heartfelt thanks for your ongoing support
Please give generously to support SWIM Cambodia & HTK’s work to stop children drowning. We cannot do it without you.
Today, 25th July, marks the very first World Drowning Prevention Day! 💦
This day was declared as part of the UN resolution on global drowning prevention and will be held every 25th July, with the first one in 2021.
An estimated 236,000 people drown every year, and drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children and youth aged 1-24 years. More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells and domestic water storage vessels in low- and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas disproportionately affected.’
SWIM Cambodia is a drowning prevention program based in Cambodia. SWIM targets children & young people who are most at risk of drowning by providing the following • Water Safety Education • Safe Rescue & CPR skills • Raising awareness of drowning issues in Cambodia • Survival Swimming Lessons (hopefully in 2022)
Drowning is a process which has three outcomes: Survival, Survival with an injury, or Death. When a child dies it is always tragic but deaths that could have been prevented are especially distressing. The huge wait of grief from child drowning grief hangs over families from the poorest communities of the world.
On average, 6 children die each day from drowning in Cambodia.
At SWIM Cambodia, we train volunteers and teachers in the delivery of water safety, safe rescue and CPR. Once education messages have been adapted to the local context, they are simple to teach and pass-on, which can be taught in the classroom and other community venues.
I’ve seen how children, young people and parents/carers enjoy 😊 these lessons as well as teachers and trainers loving their work teaching messages and lifesaving skills. Thanks to Leakena and Neath, who talked in the videos below and coordinate volunteer training for SWIM Cambodia. Along with other volunteers in the team, they give their time and expertise freely to save children’s lives. 🙏🏽
Please make some kind of commitment today, big or small to support drowning prevention. There are loads of things you can do to support drowning prevention: Raise awareness, campaign for water safety education in schools, give a pound, talk to others, start a fundraiser, write a song, make some art, share a post, gain more knowledge, find out more, volunteer some time and skills to support charities …Use this opportunity to help influence the safety of children in and around water. 💦 Please use this opportunity to do something to help save lives!
Happy World Drowning Prevention Day! A message by Neath in English
Happy World Drowning Prevention Day! Let’s make it safe and happy for children.
Every drowning is preventable. Support SWIM Cambodia to save lives
Happy World Drowning Prevention Day! A message by Leakena in Khmer (Cambodian) language.
Many people in Cambodia are experiencing lockdown restrictions due to rising numbers with COVID-19. With schools closed, SWIM Cambodia cannot currently deliver water safety education. We are using this time to plan with our trustees, volunteers and delivery partners. We are also preparing for local registration to expand our reach.
We think of all those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic and wish the best to everyone living in Cambodia
Due to COVID19, SWIM Cambodia has been unable to deliver any face-to-face interventions since Cambodia closed all schools in March. Cambodia has been spared the worst pandemic affects with only 364 cases and no deaths reported. What is unknown, is the impact of closed schools on child drowning. Whilst closing schools may have been successful in stopping the spread of the corona virus, we know that schools act as a protective factor in keeping children safe from drowning. Schools prevent all types of injury as well as allowing parents and carers the opportunity to work and provide for their family. COVID19 has had such a big impact on many of our lives, but we fear that floods and lock-down measures this year may have increased inequality in Cambodia.
We have spent time this year in meetings with our volunteer trainers, teachers and trustees. We have reviewed our strategy, made plans, discussed new proposal projects, compiled survey data from the last two years and kept in touch whenever we have had good WiFi. The trustees have been working on strategic plans towards national registration in Cambodia to build partnerships for integration into the public school system. One of our delivery partners, Helpcode, adapted well to the pandemic, filming and posting water safety messages online. See below, Harry Lao giving advice on spotting drowning dangers and knowing water and weather conditions before getting into water.
Good news for 2021! We need it!
It has just been announced that schools in Cambodia will reopen from 11th January 2021 to start the new academic year. This means that our delivery partners will be able to return to important delivery of water safety education. We are looking forward to getting back to teaching children and caregivers and meeting face-to-face as we hope to say goodbye to COVID19.
Thank you to all of you who have supported our work. If you would like to support our work to go further, you can donate at this link:
*RNLI et al. Aquatic Survival Programme Catch-up and strategy meetings with SWIM Cambodia trainers and advisors 3. Illustration by Sao Sreymao www.saosreymao.com 4. Children enjoy copying water safety messages.
