The Royal Life Saving Society, and its network of Member Branches across the Commonwealth, works to eliminate drowning by equipping individuals and communities with the knowledge and skills to stay safe in, on and around water; and by helping them develop the lifesaving skills they can use to prevent someone else from drowning.
Some of the ways we achieve this are:
- Researching drowning and aquatic emergencies, to make sure our skills and advice are always up to date;
- Organising targeted community-based drowning prevention projects;
- Training the community and professionals in lifesaving skills so they can prevent accidents and respond effectively to emergencies;
- Engaging young people in lifesaving sport activities;
- Training lifeguards and running swimming and survival swimming programmes;
- Monitoring and assessing aquatic environments to ensure they are as safe as possible for water-based activities;
- Public awareness and education programmes.
Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Training
Sometimes volunteers want the opportunity to travel abroad to carry out training. Properly structured, this can be commendable if it leads to sustainable projects, but is not without risk. We recently learned of a group of volunteers who were subject to extortion whilst on such a trip. We recommend that, for your own safety, great caution is taken in planning or implementing any similar trips, and that appropriate due diligence is carried out by, for example, making enquiry of an Embassy, High Commission or local charity group. We strongly recommend that anyone wanting to be involved in such activities first engages with the local RLSS Member (details can be obtained from www.rlsscommonwealth.org) or International Life Saving Federation Member (see www.ilsf.org) from whom advice can be obtained.
