BAHRAIN’S pioneer water safety agency is training young citizens and equipping them with life-saving skills as part of the country’s efforts to avert drowning deaths.
Royal Life Saving Bahrain (RLSB) is back with the second season of its Rookie Junior Beach Lifesaving Club programme, which commenced on Thursday at the Budaiya beach.
The training sessions, every Thursday from 3.30pm to 5pm, will run until January 18. Bahraini nationals aged between six and 16 years, who are studying in government schools and have basic swimming skills, can enrol for the free-of-charge sessions.
RLSB has been aggressively engaged in several initiatives with swimming safety in focus, ever since it launched its 2019 Water Safety Benchmarking Survey. It revealed that more than 47 per cent of children in Bahrain do not know how to swim, while 95pc do not learn swimming at primary schools. The survey also showed that 50pc of adults did not know how to swim or could barely swim, with one of the six key insights stating that Bahrain’s heritage as a water-minded nation was fast diminishing.
“The programme aims to equip youth with life-saving skills, and they could even make it a career,” RLSB general manager Sam Rahman told the GDN.
“The valuable skill sets are offered free of cost and the sessions will be rendered by qualified trainers in both English and Arabic.
“It is RLSB’s gesture of giving back to the community and we are glad that we are coming back with the second season of the programme at Rookie Club, after a successful season last year.
“All those who fit into our criteria can join the programme, which will be delivered by internationally certified lifeguards and assistant instructors. They will guide participants and help them in developing leadership and teamwork, health and fitness, community and environment, and life-saving skills.”
The training expenses for the children including their swimming kits are met by donations from charity societies.
“Children who enrol for the eight-week session will receive a rookie rash guard, bag and water bottle,” added Mr Rahman.
RLSB’s ambitious Rookie Club, which initiated its beach training programme in September 2020 at the Budaiya beach, has so far trained more than 500 participants. The Rookie life-saver training for the youth and children is part of the agency’s water safety strategy.
The GDN reported last year that three agencies in Bahrain – the Bahrain Olympic Committee, the Bahrain Swimming Association and the RLSB – were joining hands to teach 10,000 youngsters how to swim within a year.
Meanwhile, the RLSB continues its first aid training programme and reiterates its advisory for children’s safety in water.
“Children are extremely susceptible to drowning. Inclusion for every child means supervision when children are in, on and around water, whatever that may look like,” RLSB said as part of its awareness campaign #WorldChildrensDay, last week.
For more details on RLSB’s initiatives, contact info@rlsbahrain.org or 32001113.
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