Reach out to Fiji Swimming for swimming & water safety classes - Cheer-Dunn

Fiji Swimming and the Let’s Swim Fiji program say they are open to invitations from communities which want to be educated about the basics of swimming and water safety.

People can reach out through the Let's Swim Fiji or Fiji Swimming Facebook pages.

There have been eight drowning incidents recorded this month alone and the drowning toll currently stands at 31 compared to 25 for the same period last year.

The circumstances which led to some of these drownings have been tragic.

In one case a 3-year-old was without a life jacket in a boat, two brothers trying to save each other while the babysitter slept under a tree and another child who drowned in the Olympic pool.

Trisa Cheer-Dunn who is currently the Fiji Swimming Operations Manager and also oversees the Let's Swim Fiji program says they also have swimming clubs in Suva, Nadi and Lautoka that people can reach out to and join for swimming and water safety classes.

The swimming clubs in Suva are based at the Olympic Pool and Damodar Aquatic Centre, the clubs in Nadi are based at the Nadi Sports Club while the clubs in Lautoka are based out of Northern Club.

Cheer-Dunn says they are currently in Labasa where they are trying to push out the program as well.

She says having regular swimming classes does not mean that you will be a competitive swimmer.

Cheer-Dunn says there are a few social swimmers who just do it to exercise, improve their swimming skills and hang out with the other kids.

Let's Swim Fiji is a Pacific Sports Partnership program.

The Pacific Sports Partnership began in 2017 by Fiji Swimming after a drastic increase in the number of drownings both young and old.

In 2018, it put over 18,000 students through the Let's Swim Fiji program.

Cheer-Dunn says they also do training on basic water safety and rescue skills.

She says they include this in their curriculum during the training of trainers.

Cheer-Dunn says they also teach water safety and rescue skills to senior students of schools through the Learn To Swim program.

She says these students are taught the basic foundational skills for rescuing somebody or trying to aid a person with a floating device while you go and call for help.

She stresses that after work swimming lessons are also available for adults.

You can reach out to Fiji Swimming for their swimming and water safety classes on fijiswimsec@gmail.com or tiacheer@yahoo.com.