ILS members, the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research – Bangladesh (CIPRB) and the International Drowning Research Centre – Bangladesh (IDRC-B) have inaugurated a Model Drowning Prevention Centre in Raiganj, in rural Bangladesh. The centre will serve as a training centre for Government, multi-laterals and NGOs wishing to build capacity in drowning prevention in the region.
ILS members, the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research – Bangladesh (CIPRB) and the International Drowning Research Centre – Bangladesh (IDRC-B) have inaugurated a Model Drowning Prevention Centre in Raiganj, in rural Bangladesh. The centre will serve as a training centre for Government, multi-laterals and NGOs wishing to build capacity in drowning prevention in the region.
The Model Drowning Prevention Centre is the brainchild of Dr Aminur Rahman, IDRCB Director, who saw the need to provide training for creche workers, survival swimming instructors and community first responders in close proximity to their local communities. This meant building the centre in Raiganj, and saved on the costs of transporting participants to Dhaka for such training.
Dr Aminur Rahman said, “We have built such strong ties to the Raiganj community, that when we proposed building the centre, community leaders supported the idea and asssted in finding a suitable location. Now that the centre has opened we are being approached to expand our health services to assist the communities, families and children that have grown to trust us”.
The Model Drowning Prevention Centre has a fully functional creche or Anchal as it is known in Bangladesh. The Anchal supports about 30 children (9am and 1pm, six days per week), by providing a safe, health focused, educational environment for as little as few dollars per day. The Anchal has already been the venue for demonstrations for NGOs and donors with an interest in adopting or adapting the program.
Next to the Anchal sits two survival swimming venues. The first replicates a pond. CIPRB has long used modified ponds to teach survival swimming due to the availability of such waterways in most communities in Bangladesh. The second is the first of three portable swimming pools being trialled in Bangladesh. The pool is based on the prototypes that were initially tested and displayed at SwimSafe Danang, Vietnam during the ILS World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2011.
The creche, pond and portable swimming pool are part of the drowning prevention research project that has been funded by the Australian Government via AusAID. The results of these studies are clarifying how such interventions can be increased in scale across Bangladesh, and in a manner that closely monitors child and community safety.
CIPRB Executive Director Dr AKM Fazlur Rahman stated “with increasing interest in survival swimming, particularly given the recent expansion by our partners UNICEF – Bangladesh, we feel that it is essential that we reinforce the principles of risk management, close supervision and thorough training for all the emerging drowning prevention interventions. The model drowning prevention centre provides a base for such capacity training”.
TASC Technical Director and ILS Drowning Prevention Commission member Dr Mike Linnan, who was present at the inauguration ceremony, stated that “when the intervention trails commenced in Raiganj, as well as two other provinces, in 2005 the importance of the communities role in drowning and injury prevention was apparent. The investments made in building ownership among community leaders, supporting a network of village injury prevention committees and employing community members as health workers, instructors and creche workers, not only brought opportunity to test the interventions, but also established a strong model for training other communities how to be as effective as protecting their children in the future”.
During the inauguration ceremony, dignataries were given the opportunity to meet a group of teenage girls being taught CPR and First Aid. Thess teenagers will join a network of community first responders, not a skill common in rural Bangladesh. The study is being carefully monitored, with the responders reporting all first aid interventions. It is unfortunate that given the high rates of drowning in rural Bangladesh, it will only be a matter of time before one is called upon to rescue a young child.
Justin Scarr
ILS Drowning Prevention Commissioner
