The Cause

Thailand is still "number one" for deaths by drowning in Asean among children and its rate is twice as high as the world's average, said the World Health Organisation (WHO), which added local organisations should help to stop the fatalities.
 
Children are Thailand’s most precious resource, that is why Rotary started the "save a Child Swim Program"

History

In nearly two decades there have been 22,700 drowning cases, in Thailand. “That’s between the years 2000 and 2018. That averages out to nearly 1,300 child drownings every year, or about 3-4 kids every day.
This program was started by Dr. John Schorr of the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club. The Patong Beach Rotary Club started the swim program in 2018 under the guidance of Larry Amsden the chair of Rotary Community Service Projects.
Past Rotary President Larry Amsden passed away in 2018 and the program was taken over by Dr. Johan B. Storck, current Chairman of Community Service Projects, and his committee members Dr. Larry Demco, PP Sam Fauma, and PP Mark Pendlebury. A crucial part of the program is handled by the head instructor Khun Gob, she is the individual responsible for finding, assembling, supervising qualified swim instructors, who are a crucial and the most important part of the program. 
 

The Program

Our programs focuses on teaching children basic survival skills in the water. Our target audience are non-swimmers in the 4th grade of public schools whose families do not have the means to pay for private lessons for their children.   The Rotary Club of Patong Beach provides all of the equipment that the children need for these programs, including swimming suits, caps, towels, goggles, etc.  We also pay for the swimming pool rental and for the swimming instructors (there will be both male and female instructors).  
 
The program started with one school in Patong and expanded in 2021 to 3 additional schools. The program cost is financed 100% by Rotary which welcomes any donation from private sources towards the continuation of this program. To date, the Rotary swim program has issued 350 certificates of completion. An additional important part of the program teaches the children how to safely assist a drowning person. To accelerate the expansion of the swim program in 2022, we need to find additional qualified swim instructors, who are well compensated for their services.
Rotary’s ultimate goal in Thailand is to have this program in every school as part of the normal curriculum run by the Thai school system. Since the project started, more than 1,500 school children have passed this program.
 
One child drowning is one child too many.
 
If you like to watch more photos of our Save a Child Swim Program, click here
 
Thanks to Bill Trempus - our Service Project Chair -, his wife Nicha, and the entire team for running this project.
If you like to support our legacy project "Save a Child Swim Program" we are more than happy to receive your donation. Just click the button on the right and 100% of your donation shall be awarded to this fantastic project. 
The cost for one child is about 3,000 Thai Baht or about 100 USD
Thank you very much.
If you are interested to get more information about this project please contact us
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