Getting There

Vietnam is two flights away from Australia. First flight is to Singapore and then on to Vietnam. When booking flights it is important to think about how much time you have to recover. Travelling can tire out even the seasoned traveller so ensure that you have the smallest stopovers and if you do stop over for extended periods of time (I had a 12hr wait in Singapore), make sure you either have accomodation for sleep or some form of activity to keep you active. In Singapore many travellers take advantage of the free snooze lounges or even just sleep on the floor (like I did). The comfortable lounges, which are few and far between get snapped up quickly and they are hot property so don't rely on them. Mornings are interesting in international airports, apart from the people watching which is fun, being woken up by immigration police with machine guns can be quite intimidating if you are unprepared for such an image. The traders and shops are interesting to browse through but there is only so much window shopping one can take in a 12hr stopover.

Once in Vietnam travel options are plentiful. The most common form of transport is motorbike. Although daunting and scary at times you need to remember that those on the road are experienced and skilful riders. There are very basic rules which are flexible, such as ride on the right side of the road, indicate your direction and avoid collisions. Otherwise it is one eye on the mirror, one eye forward and finger on the horn. When oncoming traffic is on your side of the road, just check it is not you on the wrong side and don't panic. Just keep going in the direction you want to go and the traffic will go around you. I love seeing the family motorbike in use, Mum, Dad and the kids all piled onto the same small scooter going off to where they need to b. The other great sight is seeing the bike using instead of a truck. All manner of things get piled and balanced on bikes and zoom down the road.

The rivers are another interesting method of transport and a good way to see a different side of Vietnam. Hydrofoil transport are available and easy. Your complimentary bottle of water and towelette get handed to you when seated and all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the scenery. Occasionally the ferry will slow then stop and reverse to allow the engine to cool so don't panic if you are sitting in the middle of Saigon River miles from the edge feeling stranded, that is normal.

There are cars about but not many, you usually know there is a car around when you hear constant beeping from about 100m from an intersection, letting all of the bike riders know that a car is coming through and they are not going to stop.

If you choose to walk, do it with purpose. Know where you want to go and just go there! The traffic will negotiate you and you are safe as long as you don't hesitate (not even for a blink of an eye) or change directions without warning.

Keeping the People of Vietnam Safe

Last night Water Safety Vietnam ran an open community CPR course. Tim Kemp presented the course at the Ho Tram Kindergarten to a group of more than 24 people.  He persevered through the hot conditions of the function room and managed to convince at least 12 of the people to participate in the practical evaluations and achieve their CPR certificate. The participants, regardless of if they did the practical demonstrations, all walked a way with a clear message of what to do in emergency situations. It was evident that they understood the steps and actions to take.

At this point I am uncertain if it is a cultural barrier, embarrassment or a lack of valuing the training to keep people safe (I'm sure there is a better way of putting that, but I think that there isn't a culture of safe working environments and prevention in Vietnam. I say that not wanting to offend the Vietnamese people, I just have difficulty in understanding why there isn't more emphasis on safety here), but it is difficult to stress highly enough how important safety, importantly water safety, is to individuals and communities. Although very keen to learn, they want to just gloss over the safety aspects and swim.  They don't see that to do one you have to have the other.

At night time many of the young locals buy their fresh seafood at the town stalls and take it to BBQ down on the beach after dark. I would be surprised if some of the horrific drowning statistics don't include some of these youths, because it would be difficult to get timely assistance in the event of someone getting into trouble.

One of the things that also concerns me is that although facilities in Ho Tram are a significant asset to the community, there are several things that definitely wouldn't be acceptable back home. The fence around the pool, the leaf guards and pavers are significant risk factors. Several people have tripped over the tiles around the pool and one of our participants even fell through the leaf guard (lucky no injury occurred but it could have been quite nasty). I am aware that funding for such things is next to impossible to obtain and it isn't the primary focus of our trip here but the risks that these pose to the users of the pool can not be over come by teaching people to be safe in the water. Having said that if Water Safety Vietnam are present and are consistently spreading a message of safety, little by little things can change. There has to be a starting point and given the drowning statistics, the point of focus point and work of Water Safety Vietnam is justified.

Fundraising

Programs like this don't happen for free...

Water Safety Vietnam is a non-profit organisation and relies on volunteer members, trainers and teachers. All volunteer AUSTSWIM teachers that go to teach children's and community swimming programs are required to contribute to the costs of their travel as well as promoting the organisation's vision and passion for reducing the drowning rates in Vietnam. Yeh, sure you could just pay your way but that's not the point. You really need to get the message out there.

In the meeting with Pam, I was told about how in Vietnam it is illegal to gamble and one way to over come this in horse racing is that the 'punters' buy the horse in the race and then the winning horse owner gets the prize money. This gave me an idea for my fundraising.

In April the community I work in (Poowong, Victoria) were holding a Family Fun Day. I am a school teacher in the local primary school and I'm fairly well known by the families and able to use the opportunity of the fun day to raise some funds for my trip and to promote awareness of the cause. I wanted an activity that would be interactive, inexpensive and fun. Using the idea planted by Pam, I decided I would would a race course where the participants purchase a marble and then race them on the racetrack. There are many different ways in which fundraising occurs. Chocolate drives, garage sales, book clubs, raffles, some have even shaved their heads or even more painful; waxed their legs. I wanted to do something I hadn't seen done before and something fun for the children (we know they have the ability to convince parents to spend money). Although it was quite a feat, I built a 3 metre marble race which gave multiple paths to travel and one clear winner. On completion of the track I had another idea to get my friends involved. I decided to sell marbles to my friends on Facebook and then film a tournament which results in a tournament winner. Within an hour I had sold out of marbles in the first race (16 marbles in total) and had to open another tournament. This too sold out in a short time, that's 32 marbles in total at a price of $5.00ea  and I didn't even need to leave home... It was a great interactive way of raising money. A little ingenuity and fundraising can be quite fun.

Facebook Marble Race Introduction Video

One thing I have learnt over my journey is that the amount of effort that you put into your fundraising needs to be balanced with the potential for raising funds. Get as many people involved and spread the word.

The family fun day stall was easy to organise and didn't require a lot of effort to run. All I had to do was set up and let the people come. I did have the help of Adam who had previously trailed the marble run at his fundraising swimathon and then assisted in running the stall at the Poowong Family Fun Day. The children came and played on the race, purchasing marbles to race and having fun while I had a chance to spread the Water Safety Vietnam message.

A local primary school which also as their own pool was willing to hold a gold coin donation for Earth Day with the theme of blue to represent water.

Thank you to everyone who supported my fundraising and encouraged me to participate in this amazing project.

Program Outline - Ho Tram and Tra Tan May 2016

In 2012 Water Safety Vietnam conducted at community swimming program at the Ho Tram Beach Resort. This program was developed because Vietnam is a country that has 3,300km of coastline and 7,000km of rivers and drowning statistics of an estimated number of 35 per day.

Ho Tram

Part of the program they developed included a push to get a public pool built in Ho Tram. The local authorities had allocated a piece of land and from the vision of Water Safety Vietnam and generous supporters and the Ho Tram Water Safety Consortium (led by Carl Gay), the pool has now been built and is in use.

This year (2016) Water Safety Vietnam planned and organised a swimming program for approximately 50 kindergarten children, an additional program for 15 - 20 school teachers and community teachers; as well as a AUSTSWIM accredited course.


Leading the Program was Tim Kemp, focusing on the organisation AUSTSWIM course and overseeing the swimming program. Adam Barrett led the swimming program and I had signed up to volunteer for the organisation to assist with the swimming program.



I met with Pam, Robyn and Charles to discuss my suitability and commitment to the program. The program is a water safety program similar to Australia however the complications are that of being and travelling in a foreign country with very little English. Although the leaders of the trip and program are very proficient and patient (given that nothing runs exactly to plan in Vietnam), there are many changes and logistics that each of the program providers and volunteers need to manage professionally and efficiently. I was confident that I would be able to manage such obstacles having previously travelled before and felt enthusiastic and optimistic about supporting the program.

This then began my involvement in the Water Safety Vietnam water programs for Ho Tram and Tra Tan May 2016.

Tra Tan

In 2015 Tim Kemp and Adam Barrett conducted a swimming program in Tra Tan following on from the program that was conducted there in 2014. This was a successful program that has been supported by the Chim Tan Church and again this year a two week program will be conducted with Adam Barrett as the leader.

This blog is an opportunity for me to record the journey and share the extremely important and purposeful vision of Water Safety Vietnam.