{"id":243427,"date":"2022-11-18T19:39:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T17:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/national-sea-rescue-institute-project-aims-to-address-inland-drownings\/"},"modified":"2022-11-18T19:39:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T17:39:06","slug":"very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Very few South Africans can swim, says the NSRI. It aims to change this"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221109-ew3a3671hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Twelve-year-old Dennis Wildskut practices floating at the NSRI survival swimming centre in Riebeek Kasteel. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is building \u201csurvival swimming centres\u201d in rural areas to help prevent drownings.<\/li>\n<li>The project aims to teach swimming in poor communities.<\/li>\n<li>The NSRI says very few South Africans, about 15%, can swim.<\/li>\n<li>Children in rural areas go unsupervised to farm dams leading to drownings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With summer and the holidays approaching, soon thousands of adults and children will flock to the country\u2019s shorelines and public pools. But many who live inland and in poor communities do not have access to safe water bodies and have not learned how to swim. Children play unsupervised in rivers and farm dams.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>In Riebeek Kasteel last year, a grade six learner found his way into a dam within walking distance of his school, Meiring Primary. Just 12 years old, he drowned.<\/p>\n<p>Now a bright red container stands at the school. It is one of the National Sea Rescue Institute\u2019s (NSRI) \u201csurvival swimming centres\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Ingram, NSRI drowning prevention manager, says swimming is an \u201cessential skill\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221109-ew3a3991hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A dam within walking distance of Meiring Primary, where a 12-year-old learner drowned late last year.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221109-ew3a3968hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">So far two NSRI survival swimming centres are active in Riebeek Kasteel in the Western Cape and Tombo Village in the Eastern Cape. Two more are expected next year in KZN and the Northern Cape.<\/p>\n<p>The first of its kind, the 12-metre shipping container contains a six-metre heated swimming pool, a changing room, an office and a camera monitored by the NSRI. The water is one metre deep, making it possible for the learners\u2019 feet to touch the ground. The facility can also be locked up to avoid children accessing it unsupervised.<\/p>\n<p>The design is inspired by previous work done with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsri.org.za\/rescue\/lifeguard-unit\">lifeguard containers<\/a>. Almost everything is donated \u2013 the container, the pool\u2019s fibreglass and resin, pumps and the filtration systems. The cost would otherwise be about R650,000.<\/p>\n<p>After the Riebeek Kasteel installation in March, a second centre was set up in Tombo Village, Eastern Cape. Two more are expected next year \u2013 in KZN and the Northern Cape.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221109-ew3a3769hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this-3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The NSRI survival swimming centres are built inside a 12-metre shipping container. They have a six-metre heated swimming pool, changing room, office and a camera monitored by the NSRI.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221109-ew3a3556hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this-4.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">NSRI Instructor Petro Meyer goes through lessons with nine-year-olds Jante Heynse and Robynne Smit. They learn breath control, orientation, floating and moving through water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t teach the children how to swim, we teach them how to survive,\u201d says Petro Meyer, an NSRI Instructor in Riebeek Kasteel. She said the valley gets very hot in summer and parents are away working. Children then \u201cgo to the dams and to the rivers and they swim alone without supervision\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Meyer says they teach students four things: breath control, orientation, floating and moving through water. Children should be able to swim at least five metres once training is complete. Since the survival school opened, she says that they\u2019ve given about 1,400 lessons.<\/p>\n<p>A 2021 study on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/i\/item\/9789240030008\">drowning prevention<\/a> by the World Health Organisation found drowning to be the third most common accidental death in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Brenton Cupido, principal at Meiring Primary, said there are no other public pools. The closest public one is 20 minutes by bus to Malmesbury and costs R30.<\/p>\n<p>Riebeek Kasteel has many poor families and many parents at his school are farm workers and the majority depend on social grants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe farmers try to stop the learners [from using the farm dams] but they can\u2019t be everywhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Cupido said the government should see that \u201cthere is a need for swimming pools in the rural areas with proper supervision\u201d, and this would \u201cprevent further tragedy\u201d. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go through another \u2026 drowning again,\u201d said Cupido.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have that peace of mind, that if our children \u2026 fall in the water, they know how to survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/nsri\/nsri-20221014-ew3a9905hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this-5.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A pink buoy at Milnerton Beach. Over 1,300 of these life-saving flotation devices have been set up across South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Another NSRI project is the over 1,300 pink buoys across South Africa used as assisted floating devices in case of emergencies. These can be found in dams, rivers and the seaside. The NSRI also runs free swimming lessons at various municipal pools in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n<p>According to the NSRI, only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsri.org.za\/2022\/02\/keeping-our-kids-safe\/\">15% of South Africans<\/a> can swim (we cannot verify this statistic but it is highly likely that most South Africans cannot swim &#8211; editor). \u201cIf your parents can\u2019t swim, it\u2019s very likely that you won\u2019t learn to swim,\u201d said Ingram. \u201cIt\u2019s expensive to learn to swim\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>With the survival centres, the NSRI hopes to \u201cinstil a culture of swimming in poor communities where it wouldn\u2019t have been possible previously\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twelve-year-old Dennis Wildskut practices floating at the NSRI survival swimming centre in Riebeek Kasteel. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is building \u201csurvival swimming centres\u201d in rural areas to help prevent drownings. The project aims to teach swimming in poor communities. The NSRI says very few South Africans, about 15%, can swim. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-243427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/very-few-south-africans-can-swim-says-the-nsri-it-aims-to-change-this.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}