600 Children die per year
SOUTH CAPE The Sea Rescue programme in schools is the educational initiative of the National Sea Rescue Institute, with a vision to proactively prevent drowning tragedies. Their primary focus is on children from underprivileged communities, as they are most at risk of drowning. Even competent swimmers can drown so, instead of teaching children to swim, they teach them how to be safe in and near water and how to rescue their peers. The aim is to make youngsters aware of the dangers around water, to give them a handson practical experience of how to act in an emergency, who to call for help and what to do while they wait for help to arrive. If teens are empowered with the valuable life skill of basic bystander CPR, fewer waterrelated incidents would result in fatal drownings. They fit a lesson into a school period and the children are taught in their classroom where they are safe and in a frame of mind to learn. The Sea Rescue programme in schools is sponsored by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA). They currently have 14 full-time instructors and nine volunteers in the academy. Since 2006 they have educated more than 1 500 000 children in water safety, teaching them how to avoid danger, what to do in an emergency, who to call for help, and how to start hands-on CPR while they wait for help to arrive. Contact the NSRI Station 31 Stilbaai at 028 754 5978 for more information.