CityNews – The the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club in cooperation with the Chiang Mai Municipality and the Health and Safety Department has organised a project to teach children aged between 10-11 years old to swim. Mayor Tassanai Buranupakorn inspected the project at Bronco Kids Sports Club, an initiative of Rotary Chiang Mai International Club and the Chiang Mai Municipality to reduce the number of drownings in children.
With the upcoming summer months, many children will be swimming in canals or waterfalls and lakes to cool down which may be dangerous if they do not know how to swim, said the mayor. He also said that he intends to spread this initiative amongst all municipal schools but is starting with Pa Paeng school. There are 40 students currently in the project. They are being taught how to swim by Nattasak Taoudom, a retired national athlete from Thailand’s swim team. He will teach one hour per day for a total of eight hours per student.
According to the World Health Organisation, 372,000 people drown, world wide, each year. Fifty percent are under the age of 25. Thailand also is ranked first in the world for drowning victims under the age of 15.
The Mayor says that this is the first step in protecting children from drowning and he also suggests to parent to keep an eyes on their children during swimming time.