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figures. Because drowning victims rarely present to health facilities in these countries, the rate of drowning has been unknown until relatively recently. In contrast, communicable diseases including cholera and dysentery where families are likely to seek health care during the course of the illness have been significantly better recorded and addressed. A BBC World
Service documentary, The Silent Epidemic, which was filmed in Bangladesh and Vietnam, documented the scale of the problem.
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Ponds are used most commonly in
Bangladesh, with bamboo structures defining the teaching area. Being natural water bodies, the ponds have problems with maintenance and water quality and so are mostly used during the rainy season. There is increasingly competition for use of the ponds with commercial
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The curriculum includes guidelines for swim teaching, logistics, venue management, instructors’ criteria, training details of skill sets and graduation criteria. Of the 21 steps in the manual, water familiarisation features in eight; another eight steps relate to acquisition of different components
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SwimSafe was established to address the high levels of drowning across Asia. It began as a research project in 2001, when health prevention experts designed interviews and went from door-to-door in urban and rural areas across five countries. Ultimately more than two million households took part in
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Childhood drowning is a leading cause of death in low and middle income countries in Asia. Practical barriers to accessing health care including cost and distance have led to the under-reporting of drowning deaths and injury. Many LMICs rely on data from health clinics for their official mortality
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program in
Bangladesh which targets children under five. Each Anchal cares for about 30 children (9am and 1pm, six days per week), by providing a safe, health focused, educational environment for as little as few dollars per day. Through these Anchals over 3,725 children are supervised by trained
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Research has been published in academic journals demonstrating children are successfully using these rescue skills in practice. In 2014, the journal Injury
Prevention published a research paper based on interviews with 3890 children who had graduated from the SwimSafe program and concluded the
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The
Advanced program is for children seven years and older. It adds rescue skills aimed at rescuing others and basic life support including CPR. It is important that children at this level are confident in the water and have the mental and physical capacity to perform rescue skills.
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The first SwimSafe program was developed in
Bangladesh in 2005 after the 2003 Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey (BHIS) survey showed very high drowning rates, particularly in children. SwimSafe was developed by The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh,
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Portable pools (6m by 12.5m) with ladders, sand-filtration systems and chlorination for water sanitation have been used in
Thailand, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The portable pools have some practical advantages including controlled water depth and water quality.
80:. Known as the BASS Project (Bangladesh Anchal and SwimSafe Project) it has been implemented by the University of British Columbia and the International Centre for Drowning Research Bangladesh (IDRCB), with technical assistance from RLSSA and TASC.
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the research. The results published by UNICEF and The
Alliance for Safe Children concluded drowning was a leading cause of death in childhood in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (Jiangxi Province and the capital, Beijing), Thailand and Vietnam.
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The most recent (2014) version is SwimSafe version 3. It adds safety and risk management strategies designed to allow high-risk children to be safely included in SwimSafe and adds in-water rescue and resuscitation for older children.
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Bangladesh through 2010, it expanded with additional funding from
International Inspirations (UK Sport) and AusAID (now known as DFAT). More than 465,000 Bangladeshi children 3–16 years old have now graduated from SwimSafe.
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Following the conclusion of the first phase of research in 2003 which was focused on
Bangladesh, the research leaders began looking for public health interventions to reduce the number of drowning deaths and injuries.
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is a basic swimming, water safety and rescue program designed specifically for children in low and middle income countries (LMICs) in Asia. It is a public health intervention aimed at preventing
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SwimSafe employs community-based instructors to teach children how to swim and rescue others. The SwimSafe program consists of 21 lessons of instruction in survival swimming, rescue and
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with assistance from the Bangladesh Swimming Federation. After consultation between technical experts, there was a one-year pilot of a draft teaching manual in Savar, Dhaka in 2006.
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Rahman, F; Bose, S; Linnan, M; Rahman, A; Mashreky, S; Haaland, B; Finkelstein, E (2012). "Cost-Effectiveness of an Injury and Drowning Prevention Program in Bangladesh".
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In 2014, SwimSafe in Bangladesh was further adapted to safely train children at higher risk of harm due to health and growth conditions. This began with funding from
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SwimSafe Da Nang began in 2009 and was expanded with funding support from AusAID. By the end of 2012, 16,500 children in Da Nang, Vietnam had completed the program.
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In many low and middle income countries in Asia there are very few publicly available swimming pools, so alternative venues must be found for water safety lessons.
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Since 2005, the SwimSafe curriculum has been tested and adapted to suit the cultural and geographical needs of programs in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Rahman, Aminur; Mecrow, Tom Stefan; Mashreky, Saidur Rahman; Rahman, A.K.M. Fazlur; Nusrat, Nahida; Khanam, Mahruba; Scarr, Justin; Linnan, Michael (2014).
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in rural Bangladesh. SwimSafe version 2 was developed to use other natural water bodies such as rivers and beaches and portable swimming pools.
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Research has shown children who participated in the Anchal were 82% less likely to drown than those who did not participate in the program.
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skills and water safety knowledge. It is taught in a variety of different teaching environments including natural water bodies (ponds,
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Mecrow, Tom Stefan; Rahman, Aminur; Linnan, Michael; Scarr, Justin; Mashreky, Saidur Rahman; Talab, Abu; Rahman, A K M Fazlur (2015).
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Michael, Linnan; Giersing, Morten; Cox, Ross; Linnan, Huan; Williams, Mehr Khan; Voumard, Christian; Hatfield, Rodney (October 2007).
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SwimSafe has two levels of certification, Basic and Advanced. The Basic program is for younger children, aged four to six-years-old.
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of swim skills; three steps focus on rescue techniques and another two steps are about acquiring competence as a survival swimmer.
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In Bangladesh, SwimSafe has been in operation since 2005. Initially begun as part of the PRECISE program funded by
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and the Thai Life Saving Society. It was partially funded through a grant from the Australia-Thailand Institute.
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children were frequently using these skills; adults were not involved in any of the reported rescues.
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SwimSafe is part of an integrated package of drowning interventions in communities.
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Two of the alternatives used by SwimSafe are ponds and portable above ground pools.
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186:"NGOs work to save Asia′s drowning children - Globalization - DW.COM - 21.05.2013"
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In 2008 SwimSafe started in Thailand where it was implemented by
395:"Feasibility of a first responder programme in rural Bangladesh"
324:"In Bangladesh, children learn how to swim - and how to survive"
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The initial SwimSafe program was developed solely for use in
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306:"Bangladesh tackles 'hidden epidemic' of children drowning"
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WHO Global Report on Drowning: Preventing a Leading Killer
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506:10.1542/peds.2012-0757
304:Syed Zain Al-Mahmood.
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172:References
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514:23147971
457:"Anchal"
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251:"Grants"
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