SwimSafe is a basic swimming, water safety and rescue program designed specifically for children in low and middle income countries (LMICs) in Asia.
[1] Practical barriers to accessing health care including cost and distance have led to the under-reporting of drowning deaths and injury.
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.
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.
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.
Since 2005, the SwimSafe curriculum has been tested and adapted to suit the cultural and geographical needs of programs in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand.
In 2014, SwimSafe in Bangladesh was further adapted to safely train children at higher risk of harm due to health and growth conditions.
[7] The SwimSafe program consists of 21 lessons of instruction in survival swimming, rescue and resuscitation skills and water safety knowledge.
[9] 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.
[citation needed] Portable pools (6m by 12.5m) with ladders, sand-filtration systems and chlorination for water sanitation have been used in Thailand, Bangladesh and Vietnam.