When you live in a remote Manitoba community you likely don’t have access to swimming lessons, but for the past 13 years the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba has been visiting First Nations communities to teach them skills to prevent drowning.
The Northern Water Smart program focuses on teaching kids three things that would prevent 70 per cent of all drowning deaths in Canada each year.
“We get them to roll in some sort of disorienting format into the water, they tread water for one minute to keep their head out so they can breath and look around and swim 50 metres,” Water Smart Coordinator Christopher Love said.
This week they went to Patricia Beach to get kids from Brokenhead First Nation into the water.
“They told us they are trying to keep us safe,” said Gabriel Gabbe who was a participant in the program. “They told us not to do flips or anything… there’s giant waves on the water now.”
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The program has visited 82 different Manitoba communities teaching 9,442 kids how to be safe in water right in their backyards, which is something important for Chief Deborah Smith.
“Brokenhead has Brokenhead River flowing through it so we look at that and understand the importance of water safety for our children,” she said. “It just creates that awareness and the importance of waters and teaches others how to teach others about water safety.”
Most Manitoba drownings happen in July (23 per cent) and most happen when people are swimming (24 per cent).
Desni Bell’s two sons were in the program — she said she wanted her kids to be more confident swimmers at the beach.
“Well they do know how to swim already but I wanted them to be stronger swimmers so I don’t have to worry about them being in the water at the beach because there are strong waves,” she said.
“Last time we went, my youngest son, he got scared because he got swept away a bit but he was wearing a life jacket. He was really scared and thought he was going to drown. It’s better to teach them when there’s waves, not just a pool.”
Earlier this month two men who were recent immigrants to Winnipeg drowned in Lake of The Woods.
The Lifesaving Society said they would like to expand their program to more training for new Canadians but would need more money to make that happen.
Currently the program is funded through the provincial government, Health Canada and private donations.
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