Students hit the pool for lifesaving classes

In case you haven’t noticed, the heat is on. And while that’s not necessarily the reason why News Five’s Marion Ali spent this morning at a swimming pool, it wasn’t a bad assignment.

Marion Ali, Reporting
While these students may appear to be banging hooky, they are in fact studying hard. For the past nine weeks they’ve been enrolled in an important course that may one day save their lives. It’s a free swimming programme for primary schoolers and today the Young Women’s Christian Association held a closing ceremony. General Secretary of the “Y”, Sonia Lenares, says the training, which included one hundred and fifty students from six different schools, was established through an unfortunate incident.

Sonia Lenares, General Secretary., Y.W.C.A.
“This is through the Fiona Stevenson Memorial Fund. Fiona Stevenson was a volunteer here in Belize, a challenge volunteer and she died in the London bombing and the family decided to do something in her honour in Belize and they decided to provide swim lessons. The children come, they learn to swim and they learn the basics in water safety so that if they go out to any rivers or pool or anywhere they will know what to do.”

And while these children certainly displayed their lifesaving skills, they also showed their endurance by competing against each other. While eleven year old Keonee Gentle never finished her race, she agrees that everyone should learn to swim.

Keonee Gentle, swimmer
“It can save their lives. It can do many things for them because they can go on and teach other people.”

Marion Ali
“What happened there when you couldn’t finish the race?”

Keonee Gentle
“I got tired and I couldn’t carry on.”

Marion Ali
“So when yoh inna dah position or inna dah situation what do you do? how do you save your life?”

Keonee Gentle
“Just try to maybe dive to another end of the pool or float and that’s what can save my life or anybody else life.”

Thirteen year old Trevor Guy was not only the top swimmer for 2008, he also helped a fellow student who was in trouble.

Marion Ali
“You ever had to save anybody yet?”

Trevor Guy, Swimmer
“Out ah we class I save wah lee gial already.”

Marion Ali
“Weh mi happen?”

Trevor Guy
“Ih sink dong by deh.”

Marion Ali
“Right inna dis pool?”

Trevor Guy
“I just jump dong and get ah den I carry ah een by di showl.”

Marion Ali
“Explain to me how you learn.”

Trevor Guy
“I just jump inna di wata and di man tell me mek wen I do di dog paddle mek I paddle my foot.”

Marion Ali
“And with yoh hand?”

Trevor Guy
“Yes ma’am. I paddle with my hand to, and my foot.”

Swimming Trainers, Myles Gillett and Jiovanni Collins agree that swimming is as easy as A-B-C.

Myles Gillett, Swimming Instructor
“Two ways you could float. The one on your back you could breath and more relax. The one floating front way is the way fi mek yoh get used to it wen yoh start to swim wit yoh head down. That’s why we do the floats first; the front float and then the back float. Once you master those two floats you could start to do different techniques.”

Marion Ali
“I’ve heard stories of people learning to swim the hard way when dehn small dehn pa ker dehn dah river and just tek dehn and dash dehn een but they still didn’t die right. So it’s a natural instinct too for some that you just apply those upon entering the water.”

Jiovanni Collins, Senior Life Guard
“Yeah, I guess so too but at the same time it’s very dangerous because most children, just the stamina in their body let them freeze up and then they eventually die. So it’s very dangerous so we rather them to come to the pool where there is settled water and they can adjust themselves.”

The course started last year and Lenares says students are selected from schools on both the north and south sides of Belize City. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

The family of Fiona Stevenson has fully sponsored the course for the last two years, including paying the cost for all the children as well as the life guards and swimming instructors. The course is different from the Y’s regular summer swimming programme, which this year begins on June thirtieth.