In
June, community leaders, Red Cross volunteers and local villagers
came out in force on Negombo beach, Gampaha just to the north
of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
Over 200 people had gathered to watch a demonstration of unusual
but highly practical life-saving techniques that locals had
never witnessed before.
Three water safety instructors had flown in specially from Japan
to kick start the Japanese Red Cross water-safety pilot project
that will be running in Gampaha over the next three years.
The crowd was suitably impressed when one of the instructors
who was treading water offshore, managed to remove his trousers,
fill them with air and then use them as a neck float to maintain
his buoyancy.
Another technique that drew plenty of applause was the human
chain. Under the guidance of one of the instructors, willing
volunteers were taught the correct way to link hands in a chain
to reach someone out at sea who might be in danger of drowning.
Treacherous currents in the seas off most of Sri Lanka’s
coastline pose a constant threat to even the most experienced
of swimmers but surprisingly there is relatively little understanding
about basic water-safety amongst the coastal population.
‘
The tsunami revealed just how few people living along the coast
could actually swim. Many of the deaths could have been prevented
which is why we started this project - to teach basic water-safety
to coastal communities that will help them to prevent and manage
water-related accidents’, explains the project delegate,
Takako Miyawaki.
The water-safety project will be carried out by Gampaha Branch
of the Sri Lanka Red Cross in 3 divisions of the district. The
aim is to provide advanced level life-saver training to create
a network of instructors who will then organise basic water-safety
training and awareness for local communities.
In Japan the Japanese Red Cross has over 40 years experience
as the lead organisation in water-safety training. Many existing
training tools such as textbooks for participants and manuals
for instructors will be translated from Japanese into local
languages.
First Aid training has been one of the traditional activities
of the Sri Lanka Red Cross and in many ways water-safety training
is a logical extension of this activity.
There is a real need to build awareness about water-safety.
Providing simple tools is one approach but knowledge and skills
come first’, explains Takako.
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Over
200 people had gathered to watch a demonstration of unusual
but highly practical life-saving techniques that locals
had never witnessed before. (p14754)
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Another
technique that drew plenty of applause was the human chain.
Under the guidance of one of the instructors, willing
volunteers were taught the correct way to link hands in
a chain to reach someone out at sea who might be in danger
of drowning. (p14779)
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