Nile Swimmers

Working to stop drowning in Africa

  • What We Do
    • Timeline
    • Drowning Risk Assessment Toolkit
  • Where we work
    • Volunteer
  • Who we are
    • Trustee Board – UK
    • Staff Team – Sudan
    • Our Partners
  • Blog
  • Donate
    • Fundraising Pack
    • Support Us Whilst Shopping Online
    • Our Fundraising Promise
  • Contact

Rescue Boat training with the Sudanese Civil Defence

25th March 2016 - By Dan Graham

Since our very first course over 9 years ago, we have been working with the Civil Defence to improve safety around the Nile in Sudan.  The first few courses had a few people from the Civil Defence participating, but in a relatively unstructured ad-hoc way, without a clear route for cascading training or a longer-term sustainable approach.  In 2011, we officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding between us, the Sea Scouts, and the Civil Defence, and we were able to get access to the data they collect about the number of bodies that they recover from the Nile.

Director of Volunteers Mai Elamin discussing the Aquatic Survival Programme with the officers.
Director of Volunteers Mai Elamin discussing the Ministry of Education Aquatic Survival Programme with the officers. Helping to reduce the problem of drowning from many different angles.

As a government body, the positions of authority within the organisation are political appointments, and so despite enormously promising talks in 2011, progress stalled as key staff changed.

CPR Training on the banks of the NileThe relationship was reinvigorated in 2015, and we were requested to develop a specific training programme for their river based staff, as well as looking at a wider command and control structure.  Yesterday, we successfully completed the first pilot course training six officers (from six states) in rescue boat operator skills, CPR, First Aid, beach rescue techniques, and basic fault-finding and engine maintenance.

During the final boat handling assessmentPrevious courses that the Civil Defence have attended have included our river lifeguard course, and our aquatic survival instructor course.  Whilst overlapping with their areas of responsibility, these courses did not align closely to their typical work.  The newly developed course has been designed especially for the Sudanese Civil Defence and techniques take into account the resources and equipment that are available to them.

The pilot course was very successful, and the six candidates are excited to return to their colleagues in the states to share their new knowledge.  On the final day we had some interesting discussions about models for expanding and developing the programme.  The next (refined) course starts tomorrow with six soldiers.

About Dan Graham

Dan is one of the co-founders and trustees of Nile Swimmers. You can read more about him on the "Who we are" page from the menu above.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Recent Blog Articles

  • WCDP2019 – Hind’s experience
  • WCDP2019 – Ali’s experience
  • #WCDP2019
  • Marvellous Sarah Davis paddling the Nile
  • Nile Swimmers delivering on promises in Al Manaseer

Blog Archive

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Nile Swimmers - Registered Charity 1152395