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OAK launch
15 November 2021
From October 25 to 29, 2021, the Swim Stars teams went on an AUTO-RESCUE DAKAR 2021 mission to volunteer to teach the anti-drowning program in Senegal and mitigate this scourge that severely affects the country’s youth. A solidarity action conducted in partnership with the local swimming school Swim Kids and the Novotel Dakar.
5 days, 10 swimming lessons, a dozen activities, 60 children trained in life-saving techniques, and hundreds more to come!
Drowning is the third leading cause of death from everyday accidents worldwide and 91% of global drownings occur in low- and middle-income countries.And in Senegal alone, in 2021, there were 114 deaths in 6 months, 48 of which occurred in June alone – mostly among young people.
Most of Senegal’s16 million people don ‘t know how to swim,” reports Ibrahima Fall, President of the National Association of Swimming Instructors and Lifeguards. What’s at stake? Lack of swimming lessons and infrastructure.
Despite the country’s openness to the sea, learning to swim is not easy in Senegal due to a lack of means. Indeed, schools do not generally provide swimming lessons and Dakar, a city of more than 3 million inhabitants, has only one municipal swimming pool.
At the same time, swimmers often find themselves facing dangerous beaches with waves, violent currents and waves that increase the risks and they lack the right reflexes.
From October 25 to 29, 2021, Swim Stars intervened with a triple objective:
Hand in hand, Swim Stars and Swim Kids trained approximately 60 children aged 5 to 15 from local associations in the AUTO-RESCUE® program . Thus, the courses and activities took place in the Novotel Dakar, partner of the event.
For 5 days, with 2 classes per day, students learned all the fundamentals of the program:
The objectives of the week? Familiarize children with the aquatic environment and its dangers, develop their self-confidence and make them have fun! reports Olivier Chazot, founder of Swim Stars and the
The children and young teenagers came to us thanks to 3 local associations.
When they arrived, they did not yet know the full program of festivities. Some were about to discover water for the first time. Others have made friends. Everyone was brave, willing, smiling and involved!
United VERS’ELLES Senegal welcomes children and young women who are victims of abuse to La Maison Rose and the Espace Yaakaaru Guneyi to help them reintegrate into the family and the community. Empire des enfants works for the care and social reintegration of children in vulnerable situations, hand in hand with the ministries concerned, and with the help of its psychologists and specialized educators. Niofar is a small collective led by a group of mothers and their children. It makes donations to associations, orphanages, prisons, schools or any structure in need of help.
The apprentice swimmers were deliberately mixed and divided into 3 groups to allow for new encounters. When a group was swimming The other groups had fun while developing their skills: workshops for creating wooden games, mornings at the playground Les Pois Sont Rouges coloring, animations and advice about the prevention program S.A.F.E. prevention program with its mascot Poulpy, outings to the beach, group games, initiation to Taekwondo, table soccer…
The children participated in creative workshops and each association went home with the wooden toys they created!
The activities allowed the apprentice swimmers to develop their concentration, to work on surpassing themselves, to encourage exchange and sharing, whether in the water, around a game or around a dish.
After beautiful starfish, jumps, dives, doggie style swims, crawl starts, long and underwater movements, the knowledge was validated during a big giant AUTO-RESCUE® test.
Then, two by two, to general encouragement and applause, the students jumped from the end of the pool. 1st step: swim to the 1st coach. 2nd step: turn over on your back and float for 5 seconds (starfish pose). 3rd step: resume swimming to the 2nd coach. 4th step: get out of the water by yourself.
5th and final step? After the splash, a circus show with a troupe of acrobats and the presentation of a well-deserved diploma to each apprentice swimmer. Congratulations to all!
Sébastien ANTOINE, Director of Novotel Dakar, during the graduation ceremony
This solidarity action entitled AUTO-RESCUE DAKAR 2021 was made possible thanks to the Novotel Dakar teams. The pool and the The outdoor spaces were used for swimming lessons and creative, fun and educational activities for the children.
The swimming lessons were taught with the Swim Kids school and the students came to us thanks to the local associations that do a great job every day for the children of Senegal in a very vulnerable situation.
The children left with new water safety reflexes, a well-deserved anti-drowning diploma, gifts and memories – and they’re not the only ones!
Annah, the supervisor of the girls hosted by Unies VERS’ELLES and La Maison Rose, participated in the courses and also received her diploma!
This project is intended to be duplicated in other countries with the mission of teaching the AUTO-RESCUE® program to the greatest number of people, and in priority to the most vulnerable, and to help reduce the number of drownings in France and in the world. Contact us if you want to get more information about the upcoming editions or propose to participate!
We thank all the participants for their involvement and their sympathy. Special thanks to : Sébastien Antoine for believing in this project from Paris to Dakar, Sarah Hedi the super-coordinator of the event, Dina Saheli and Ousmane Goudia Fall from Swim Kids for their smiling and generous presence, the Novotel lifeguards for their accompaniment in the water and in the translation needs. And also Cédric for his workshop of wooden games which seduced young and old, all the supervisors of the associations among which Annah Lipiz of Uni Ver Elles – La Maison Rose and Jennifer Janes in humanitarian mission, Alpha Ousmane who represented the collective Niofar and who supervised his group with a lot of benevolence (and discipline!), Mister Touré of Empire des enfants as well as Youssef Faye, the musician who made all the crowd dance, and our dear b I would like to thank the volunteers Celia, Harouna, Jade and Keza for their precious help.
Figures: WHO 2021 report, AFPPhoto credits: @swimstarsfrance, @flywithg
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