Chairman’s blog May 2021

Hello supporters of WSV,

 I hope this blog finds you well and happy. We have now gone from a time of lockdown to a time of vaccination. Hopefully you can see this as a step closer to being able to travel internationally. Only the government can give us guidance on our return to travel (and even they don’t know sometimes).

It can seem like we at WSV are sitting on our hands having pushed the pause button on programs last year, but I can assure you that we have been keeping in contact (huge thanks Pam and crew) with our partners over in Vietnam. And this communication has resulted in WSV funding school programs throughout the Ho Tram and Phuoc Buu districts, and also Bien Hoa where St Joseph’s school have just put on a program using teachers trained by WSV. We assist with bus fares and pool entry fees to enable these school and kinder programs to go ahead. Thank you goes to Ms Lan of St Joseph Bien Hoa, Mr Chinh and I especially would like to acknowledge the hard work done by Chantelle Stork, manager of Sanctuary Resort Ho Tram to help get the Ho Tram kinder program up and going. Chantelle even got into the water to help the children. All 3 of these amazing people,(Ms Lan, Mr Chinh and Chantelle) are passionate about children in their care and area, learning water safety skills.

Another way we have been able to assist in the reduction of childhood drownings in Vietnam is our association with Swim Vietnam. Mr Trung from Swim Vietnam has had the help of a donor called “Money in motion”. Because WSV cannot travel to Vietnam to present teacher training at the moment, we have agreed to provide vital funds to assist in the teaching of swimming and water safety teachers by Swim Vietnam. This is a way that our mission of teacher training will still live on, and the more teachers trained, the more children are taught.

A huge thank you to Elvy Tran and Sophie Le for keeping us in touch with these and other programs. We cannot thank you enough.

At our next meeting, we will all hopefully meet. It has been so long since the committee has got together, and I am keen to see as many smiling faces as possible. Look out for the details in your emails.

Until the next blog, stay safe and happy

Tim Kemp

Chairman -Water Safety Vietnam