WCDP 2019 in Durban; a conference with resonance.
I am glad to have had the honour and pride to represent Nile Swimmers at this amazing world conference. Such a privilege to share our organisation’s experience and continuous efforts in preventing drowning in Sudan, and to learn from other countries’ experience.
It was amazing to witness delegates representing 64 countries around the world, all sharing the same burden and reflecting the consequences of drowning within their communities; and most importantly, collectively driven to do something about it. Such a heart-warming feeling seeing several people from various backgrounds all united towards one ultimate goal: eliminating a common occurrence and silent killer.
It was equally great to see Nile Swimmers work and inputs being valued and admired at the conference. Sharing some of our work: water safety interventions at Almanaseer, community flood risk reduction programme at the White Nile and West Kordofan states, as well as an interactive workshop on community disaster risk reduction measures, all provided practical insights and reflections of the work we do in preventing drowning in Sudan.
Witnessing the various countries’ delegates expressing their experience on drowning from their own country’s perspective, it was evident that the concept of ‘one size fits all’ on drowning prevention measures does not work, as each country/community needs to be individually addressed in order to come up with a unique set of interventions/measures which suit its local circumstances and socio-economic status and address its people’s needs.
I genuinely believe that with such unity, collaboration, determination and continuous thrust to accomplish more in this field, this amazing worldwide drowning prevention community would ultimately achieve great success in decreasing the incidents of drowning deaths around the world, and successfully help in alleviating avoidable agonies of several impoverished communities. Securing a UN resolution on drowning prevention, as was called for at the conference, would be a great milestone for achieving this goal.
I hereby express my gratitude and appreciation to the organisers of WCDP 2019 at the lovely city of Durban – South Africa, all the nice people I met at the conference and the great work they do & last but not least to Nile Swimmers team and volunteers and I look forward to WCDP 2021 in Sri Lanka.