by Iffat Ara Sharmeen,
22 May, 2025
Earlier this month, a team of four instructors from the Dutch NGO, Swimmin’ Foundation, took on the mission to prevent drowning in Bangladesh by teaching children critical swimming.
According to UNICEF, 14, 000 children in Bangladesh die due to drowning. In fact, it is the second leading cause of death for children under five years of age in the country. This is not just a public health issue; it is a stark reminder of how we are losing bright young minds to the dangers of water.
Both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF agree that drowning can be easily prevented with low-cost solutions such as increasing awareness among communities and teaching swimming skills and safety lessons to children and adolescents. This is what inspired the Swimmin’ Foundation to start its journey in Bangladesh, in collaboration with Friendship.
Swimmin’ Foundation was founded in 2018 by Tom van Nieuwamerongen, a member of the Dutch Olympic Team. He provides swimming lessons to Dutch children in the Netherlands and abroad, as well as ToT sessions with swimming teachers interested in teaching swimming and building and managing swimming facilities. What intrigued Tom about Bangladesh most was that drowning was one of the leading causes of death in children in such a river-strewn country, where one would expect children and adolescents to naturally know how to swim and stay safe, but this was not the reality. Tom felt compelled to teach swimming in disaster-prone char islands for this reason, with the intention of saving lives in disadvantaged communities without proper access to swimming resources and tools.
Swimmin’ Foundation has visited the remote char islands of northern Bangladesh five times since May 2022. Each year, instructors from the organisation teach various swimming styles, self-rescuing techniques, and the use of lifesaving tools. They also conduct structured classroom sessions in Friendship Schools, where students are taught about water safety, risk assessments, and emergency action.
This year, from 10 May to 20 May, Swimmin Foundation organised swimming lessons and classroom sessions in two Friendship Schools—Batikamari and Char Sidhai in Gaibandha. A total of 196 primary school students aged six to ten were chosen from the schools, with 92 from Friendship School Batikamari and 104 from Friendship School Sidhai Char. Each school group had an equal number of boys and girls. Each school group was divided into eight sub-groups of six boys and six girls. After the swimming lessons and interactive classes, students also passed a written exam and a presentation on the swimming lessons they received so far.
Swimmin’ Foundation left beautiful memories and important skills for the children of Gaibandha, but they also learned much about the char islanders. They plan to return in September with a new and improved curriculum based on their recent experiences to ensure better knowledge sharing and learning among children and adolescents.
