In response to World Drowning Prevention Day (July 25), Dr. Pham Viet Cuong, Director of the Center for Community Health and Injury Prevention (CCHIP), Hanoi University of Public Health, spoke with VietnamTimes Magazine about the implementation of child drowning prevention across Vietnam and its results over the past 10 years.

Dr. Pham Viet Cuong, Director of the Center for Policy Research and Injury Prevention, Hanoi University of Public Health

Addressing the high risk of child drowning in Vietnam, Dr. Pham Viet Cuong said that most of Vietnamese children have not reached the level of "safe swimming" for them to survive fatal water accidents. In many provinces, only 1 to 2% children achieve "safe swimming" level. Lessons on water safety skills or how to respond when falling into the water or when saving others from drowning are not widely taught.

Every year, nearly 2,000 Vietnamese children die from drowning, especially the 6-15 age group, reported Department of Children, Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).

Dr. Pham Viet Cuong said that knowing survival swimming skills is the key intervention to reduce the risk of drowning for children aged 6-15. On the other hand, for the 0-6 age group, close supervision should be prioritized.

For more than 10 years, CCHIP in particular and MoLISA, community-based organizations and international partners in general are fully committed on the child injury prevention research and planning.

"The cooperation with partners such as the US charity Bloomberg, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Policy Advocacy Program has lasted for more than 10 years. As a research center for community health and injury prevention, CCHIP's role is to provide evidence to assist in policy making and evaluation of local interventions," said Cuong.

The result of drowning prevention studies from Vietnam appeared in many international conferences. They are used to demonstrate the leading role of the community in reducing child drowning deaths.

Cuong claims that during the peak time of the child drowning Vietnam such as summer vacation, both parents and children are encouraging to join swimming classes near where they live to learn water safety skills to for free. Swimming instructors, mostly volunteers of local community-based organizations, are well-trained and have great enthusiasm.

Assessing the results of international cooperation for child drowning prevention, Cuong said that the support from the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Bloomberg Philanthropies (US) gave CCHIP the opportunity to conduct studies in a more standardized way, for an extended period of time. Researchers can also share the lessons and process of program implementation with other countries, actively contributing to global health care.

"The role of these researches does not limited to academic purposes. It is practical to raise the public awareness about the risk of child drowning and what is the best way to prevent," Cuong claimed.

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