Graham Buckley's journey in Vietnam started with volunteer work in back when he was a college student. Before officially moving to Hue in 2016, the British man spent many months volunteering in this coastal province in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2011.

Some of his volunteer trips concluded within a few weeks, some prolonged for months. The British volunteer kept coming back to Hue province until he concluded that it was time to fully immerse in the activities to really make a difference. As soon as he settled in Vietnam, Graham began running and operating Hue Help, with the key focus on building a safe livelihood for children in the province.

British expat Graham Buckley, Director of the non-profit organization Hue Help (Photo: Nhung Nguyen)

"When Hue Help first started, we were just a few individuals trying to raise money to help a children' shelter in Hue. The very first thing we did was to afford one staff member to make sure the children were supervised overnight for three months. Then from that, we realized that we have to register an organization. Then more and more ideas came for the organization to grow since then," claimed Graham.

For the last 17 years, the growth of Hue Help has been Graham's priority. He is particularly proud of their water safety education for Hue's children, which has been running for the past 12 years. So far, some thousands of Vietnamese children has been equipped with swimming, survival and rescue skills thanks to Graham and his team.

"With my background and my desire to work in that area [drowning prevention], I decided to move here in 2016. I am the only one from the very beginning who is still involved [among the foreign volunteers]," said the British director.

Children in swimming lesson with Katie – a qualified swimming teacher trained by Hue Help (Photo: Hue Help).

Tackling the drowning burden has not been easy because it used to be much overlooked in Vietnam. Especially in coastal areas, there are many bodies of water, like ponds, lakes and beaches. Children, aged 6-15, will play in these places without any supervision. With neither swimming skills nor water safety knowlege, they do not know how to survive or help their friends when in danger.

Safety education and first aid for parents and students of Nam Dong province in 2021 (Photo: Hue Help).

Even when the issue is no longer overlooked, the biggest misperception about the drowning prevention work is that children should be completely away from the water for their safety.

"One of the biggest challenges of our work is the parents' view. They believe that the best thing to do is to keep their children completely away from water. Although that is an understandable perspective to have, there is evidence showing that when children learn to swim and water safety skills, they're significantly less likely to drown," the British director shared.

Hue Help's program's curriculum include the necessary skills so student can ensure their own safety and provide help to others. Graham and his team at Hue Help often remind the people of how swimming is like a vaccine for drowning.

"Imagine drowning is like a disease. It's a leading cause of death for children. So we try to get people to think that knowing how swim is like a vaccine that children can take and this vaccine is 96% effective."

Another thing that makes Hue Help team the experts in this field is their collaboration system. To popularize water safety knowledge to as many children and parents, they not only partner with schools and NGOs in the province but also in other places with alarming drowning burden as well.

Hue Help instructor provided swimming teachers in Quang Dien province, Phu Loc province and Phu Vang province training courses in 2022 (Photo: Hue Help)

"Our main partner is the provincial Department of Education and Training. We work with them to select schools with suitable conditions. It is important that they are willing to commit to running swimming lessons because it does require a lot of support from the schools. We then provide swimming teacher training courses as well as equipment and small support for the teachers like allowances and so on," Graham explained the main collaboration mechanism of Hue Help.

In November 2023, Hue Help Organization coordinated with the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province to install 6 life rings at 2 locations in Hue city (Photo: Hue Help).

As Hue Help's director, Graham always thinks of how to keep their programs running even when his team must work on a limited budget. During the early days, most of the resources for Hue Help operation came from running small events and from asking for support from friends and family. Their reputation was also improved over the years, thanks to their constant effort to improve.

"We visit the lessons run by the school to monitor and provide technical support to the teachers. In case we cannot always be there to support every school we've always worked with every year, we try our best to make it as fair as possible," said Graham.

Sharing their future plans, Graham and his team have a big dream for Hue Help - to develop a model for drowning prevention in Vietnam.

"Drowning prevention is the area Hue Help has the most expertise and experience. Across Vietnam, there is a huge need for drowning prevention with around 2000 drowning deaths in children aged 6-15 annually. The number is higher than any other country in Southeast Asia. We hope Hue can become a model on drowning prevention work that other provinces can look to emulate as well," exclaimed the British director.

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