NSRI brings water safety to school
Survival swimming classes welcomed
“One, one two!” shouts a classroom-full of children, repeating the number to dial from a cellphone if there is any kind of emergency. Hands shoot up as National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) volunteers Carol Mewse and Carey Webster ask what you must remember when planning a trip to the beach.
Two of the four children who drowned at Kenton-on-Sea’s Middle Beach on New Year’s Day 2023 were from Ekuphumleni Full Service School.
The incident cut straight to the heart of the coastal community.
For several months, Mewse, Webster and other volunteers have been conducting survival swimming classes – also a meticulously researched programme of the NSRI.
Scores of children have attended the sessions that are not swimming lessons, but rather the skills a non-swimmer needs to stay alive in water. The pop-up survival swimming classes have been held at Kiddie’s Beach in Port Alfred, and in the Kariega River at Kenton.
The NSRI’s water safety education programme started in 2006. Their focus is on teaching people throughout SA to be safe in and around water, especially children under 14 years.
“Rural underserved communities in particular are vulnerable to drownings in farm dams, rivers and streams.
“Without formal swimming skills people too often find themselves in trouble,” the NSRI website says.
“The NSRI’s programme presents an effective water safety curriculum to create awareness of the dangers of water, what to do if someone gets into trouble, how to help a friend in need, how to perform CPR and who to call.”
For more information, or if you’d like to help, WhatsApp Carey Webster at 076-152-2827 or email