In celebration of International Children’s Day, the Ministry of Education and Training of Việt Nam (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 Việt Nam’s national school system—an effort shaped through GHAI’s sustained technical and policy support for the Government of Việt Nam’s commitment to reduce drowning related injuries and deaths in Việt Nam.
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children in Việt Nam, particularly in rural and flood-prone areas. Since 2019, GHAI, through its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, has supported Việt Nam’s Child Drowning Prevention Program in delivering free survival swimming lessons to over 48,500 children in 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 Việt Nam’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, Việt Nam 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 Việt Nam. 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 Việt Nam’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.
On April 20th, Joyous Ampurire and her daughter, Witness Akansasira, drowned when a canoe capsized on Lake Bunyonyi. Their deaths were deeply personal to one family, but the questions they raise are national. What makes a journey on Uganda's waters safer? Who is responsible for reducing risk? And what must change before another family carries the same loss?
In Ghana, drowning poses a critical public safety and national security issue, requiring an urgent shift in policy priorities and resource allocation. For too long, drowning has been perceived as isolated accidents or personal tragedies rather than a systemic public health problem. It is an urgent yet overlooked public health crisis in Ghana, claiming an estimated 1,100 to 1,400 lives each year. This mortality rate is driven by legislative and funding gaps and inadequate enforcement of water safety regulations. To address these challenges, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator would like to partner with local partners in Ghana to work in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global PROTECT framework and national drowning prevention priorities to drive sustainable policy changes.
