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We are currently in our fourth year of operations and have reached over 14,000 children from ten tsunami affected coastal districts with our ‘Confidence-with-Water’ activities. Graduation ceremonies take place regularly and we are convinced that with our help, children are beginning to loose their fear of the sea and begin to enjoy swimming on a regular basis. As areas of the West coast have been completed, we have begun to streamline the project and hand the pools back to the local community, so that they can manage and run classes whilst we focus on new areas.
In January 2007, we were approached by Terre Des Hommes, a large international organisation who specialise in child protection and running psycho-social projects in the East of the country, to start operations in Ampara and Batticaloa districts.
For more information on our current project in the East, please check the SwimLanka and Terre Des Hommes pages
A General Overview of SwimLanka
SwimLanka has entered a new phase of development in 2008. Since the first initial opening of a temporary pool in Tangalle along with the training of just three coaches in February 2005, we have seen more and more interest and with which we have had to train a further 35 coaches to give us the opportunity to reach even more children around the coastline of Sri Lanka. In three years we have trained over 16,000 children , running 27 pools in 8 of the 10 tsunami affected districts helping them to pass their ‘Confidence With Water’ classes.
Stage Two of our program is starting to take effect with the completion of a community focused swimming pool in Galle. The six lane, 25m pool is purely aimed at Galle and the surrounding area to provide a safe and reliant opportunity to teach the community to swim. Classes are offered free of charge to local schools, and private classes are available in afternoons and evenings or at non-school times.
For locations that have been covered by our ‘Confidence-with-Water’ activities, which can not access a permanent pool to continue their swimming activities, we try to find local safe places for the children to swim. Lagoons, rivers and inland water ways can provide a safe and natural place to swim. Small swimming clubs can be formed and with such attract donors to build permanent pools such as our pool in Galle.
With the end of the conflict in June 2009, we now look to help the children in previously inaccessible areas such as Mulitivu and Jaffna. We have joined with a new project partner Terre Des Hommes, who have been running projects in Sri Lanka for the last 30 years. Joining with Terre Des Hommes will help us to gain access to much needed areas where we will continue to run classes for the thousands of children still yet to benefit from the ‘Confidence With Water’ classes, again with the forethought of then moving to Stage Two of the project with helping to find accessible, safe places to swim. Stage Two of the project could see the start of training of teenagers to become lifeguards, coaches and swimming club organisers, all with an eye of attracting donors to build permanent pools in the East.
Helping children around the coast of Sri Lanka has always been the cornerstone of the trust and whether the children are displaced, disabled or unable to swim; we will endeavor to change the local opinion of the importance of water confidence. Without the continued support from our devoted donors and project partners, SwimLanka could not have obtained the level of competence it has achieved, nor the respect it has obtained within local communities and international interests alike.
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