We often get asked why we choose to work in the countries that we work in. The honest answer is that we don’t – in every country, it has been a local organisation that has approached us. This is key to our method of working, we learn from and work with local organisations to build their capacity and capabilities to deal with the enormous problem of drowning.
A few months ago, SwimSafe Uganda approached our good friends at Lifeguards Without Borders – and collectively with International Surf Lifesaving Association and Starfish Aquatics Institute we hatched a plan… and Project Uganda was born.
In essence, SwimSafe Uganda has partnered with the Ugandan National Council on Sports, the Police, and the Ministries of Education and Sports to put on this event. Key stakeholder organisations from across Uganda including Royal Lifesaving Society Uganda, the Uganda Lifesaving Federation, and the Uganda Swimming Federation will be involved.
Dan Graham is the Nile Swimmers representative for this event. Dan will be assisting and sharing course information as a guest lecturer. He will also be meeting with representatives from:
- Ministry of Education and Sports
- Kampala Capital City Authority
- Ministry of Youth and Children
- Uganda Police
- National Council of Sports
- Uganda Swimming Federation
Nile Swimmers have developed connections with many of these stakeholder organisations due to our previous work in Africa – Dan explains;
“we are keen to establish a strong working-group where each organisation has a clear role to play, and a valuable contribution to make. Too often political power struggles prevent good work from taking place – by partnering with three other experienced and active drowning prevention organisations from around the world – we are very obviously demonstrating the collaborative approach that we are hoping to develop in-country with the Ugandan organisations.”
Two national media conferences have been scheduled for the project.
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