Today is the International Day of Education and to mark this day the RLSS hosted, in partnership with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, an event in London focusing on ‘Integrating Drowning Prevention and Education’. The event sought to increase awareness and encourage action on the need to integrate drowning prevention interventions in education initiatives. We were delighted to have participants from organisations working with the RNLI and RLSS, along with representatives from High Commissions in London in attendance.
Dr Rebecca Sindall from the RNLI facilitated the event, with presentations by Dr Caroline Lukaszyk from the World Health Organization which focused on the Global Status Report, Jonathan Bruce our Youth Trustee presenting on behalf of the RLSS highlighting the importance of youth participation and sharing success stories from our Commonwealth members, and a video from the Panje Project highlighting the integration of water safety education into the national curriculum in Zanzibar.
Caroline and Jonathan were then joined by Carlene McAvoy from RoSPA/Water Safety Scotland and Professor Nibedita Ray-Bennett from the University of Leicester and Avoidable Deaths Network for a panel discussion that focused on the panels experiences in: achieving government buy-in and collaboration with stakeholders; lessons learned from integrating education for high-risk populations from other avoidable deaths; the role international alliances play in integrating drowning prevention into education; and, obstacles that have been encountered engaging youth in water safety education and how to overcome these.
An estimated 300,000 people drown every year. Globally, over half of all drowning deaths are among those aged under 25 years. Integrating child or youth focused drowning prevention interventions into existing education systems is an effective way to prevent death by drowning and save lives. Anyone can drown, no one should
