Children gain survival swimming skills

NSRI volunteer instructors teach pupils how to stay afloat

About 55 children from several Nemato schools in Port Alfred enjoyed an NSRI Survival Swimming class with Carey Webster, Carol Mewse and other volunteers at Kiddie’s Beach on Wednesday.

Persistent drizzle did not deter the excited children as they took to the water in small groups, watched carefully by the Survival Swimming teachers.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) launched the Survival Swimming Programme at the start of 2020. These are not swimming lessons; rather, the programme teaches children (and adults) the basic skills to stay afloat if they get into difficulty in the water.

“The initiative came about after several stories emerged involving children drowning a metre or two from safety,” the NSRI says on its website (www.nsri.org.za).

“They would not have needed to swim 50m to survive; they would only have needed to know how to move as little as 5m through the water to get to safety. ” Instructors, who undergo training, work with three children at a time.

In a 15-minute session, they teach them breath control, orientation in the water, floating and propelling themselves forward.

Webster and Mewse have been conducting the free Survival Swimming sessions at Kiddies Beach in Port Alfred, and at Kariega lagoon, Kenton-on-Sea.

They have also started presenting the NSRI’s Water Safety Education programme at Ndlambe schools. On Wednesday, the volunteers, easy to spot in their bright-pink rash vests, escorted the children in small groups into a cordoned-off area on the river’s edge.

In about 15 minutes, they learnt how to blow bubbles, float on their backs, orientate themselves in the water and move through it by paddling or wading.

While some of the volunteers are teaching, others are assigned to watch out for anyone getting into difficulty, or moving outside the demarcated area.

Hardware store BUCO has provided ropes and mini-buoys to mark off the instruction areas on the rivers’ margins.

The NSRI’s water safety education programme started in 2006. The aim is to teach people throughout SA to be safe in and around water, especially children below the age of 14.

Survival Swimming is one of the NSRI’s three drowning prevention programmes. The other two are Water Safety Education, and Pink Rescue Buoys.

Pictures: MARK CARRELS EASY DOES IT: Survival Swimming instructor Carey Webster (in pink T-shirt) reassures a child as she guides him through a four-part orientation in the water at Kiddie’s Beach, Port Alfred, on Wednesday March 13. The children are taught basic skills to stay afloat if they get into difficulty in the water.

LET’S SWIM: Survival Swimming volunteers Jean Baker and Winnie Le Roux with some of the 55 children from Nemato who took part in an NSRI Survival Swimming class at Kiddies Beach, Port Alfred, on Wednesday March 13.