Learning to swim may be a rite of passage for many Australians, but not every child gets the opportunity.
A Victoria University program funded by the RACV has been giving life-saving water training to migrant children with little or no experience around water.
Aged six to 12, the children are migrants, refugees or youngsters living in detention centres, after arriving from countries including Burma, Sudan, Iran and Lebanon.
VU students training to qualify as swim instructors and lifeguards lead the children in five weekly one-on-one sessions.Loretta Konjarski, of VU’s College of Sport and Exercise Science, said the project also helped VU students develop cross-cultural communication skills.
“The program gets our students out of their own comfort zones and helps them better understand humanity.”
About 200 children a year have been made water-safe since the program, teaching Sudanese teenagers to swim, started seven years ago.
