In celebration of International Children’s Day, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET), in collaboration with the Bac Ninh Provincial People’s Committee and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), held an important event to highlight the Government of Vietnam’s national movement for child drowning prevention.
This landmark event also introduced the official pilot of a survival swimming program, drawing nearly 1,000 teachers and students from across Bac Ninh Province and the beginning of a broader strategy to integrate survival swimming into Vietnam’s national school system—an effort shaped through GHAI’s sustained technical and policy support for the Government of Vietnam’s commitment to reduce drowning related injuries and deaths in Vietnam.
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children in Vietnam, particularly in rural and flood-prone areas. Since 2019, GHAI, through its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, has supported Vietnam’s Child Drowning Prevention Program in delivering free survival swimming lessons to over 48,500 children 12 provinces with the highest child drowning rates. GHAI’s role extends beyond implementation—through evidence-based advocacy, coalition-building and strategic communications, we have helped mobilize official support, secure policy commitments and ensure sustainable investments in child safety and injury prevention.
Since 2022, GHAI has partnered closely with MOET to provide technical assistance and collaboration in key areas of policy and capacity-building. This includes supporting the training of 250 core physical education teachers in survival swimming instruction. These trained teachers now serve as provincial-level trainers, helping expand the reach and quality of swimming education across the school system.
In addition, GHAI provided technical support to MOET to develop two major national policy instruments including the Circular on School-Based Injury Prevention and the Decision approving the National Program to Enhance Knowledge and Skills on Drowning Prevention for Students for the 2025–2035 period. These policies create a long-term, sustainable framework to embed drowning prevention into Vietnam’s national education agenda.
“Our goal has always been to make survival swimming a policy priority, not just a program,” said Ms. Doan Thu Huyen, Vietnam Country Director . “Teaching children aged 6 to 15 how to swim is one of the most effective interventions to reduce drowning—especially in resource-limited settings like Vietnam. Survival swimming is like a vaccine—it protects children from one of the most underestimated threats to their lives.”
As the program expands, GHAI remains committed to supporting Vietnam’s efforts to scale up survival swimming nationwide, sustainably integrating it into the education system and continuing building the official governmental and societal momentum needed to keep child drowning prevention at the forefront of the public agenda.
