CEF's annual Water Safety Day

CEF's Water Safety Day didn't happen exactly as we had hoped as it had been windy and rainy prior to the event. When we arrived at the beach the seas were a little rough, but the waves got bigger as the day progressed. We knew that only if the waves subsided would we be able to teach floating and swimming.

Unfortunately the waves didn't subside enough. Games in the ocean still were possible to help them experience the strength of the waves and learn how far they could enter.

All our other plans went ahead of a thorough session on water safety theory with many questions and answers, games on the beach, games under shelter, having a lovely lunch and taking them to the movies. The day was enjoyed by all students, volunteers and staff.

We are grateful to Pauline for her donation for this event and the grant from Go Philanthropic making this day possible. Also Swim Vietnam were crucial in making it a safe day as they are professional teachers of water safety. Our staff and volunteers were important to make it run well and to help care for and supervise our students.

CEF staff attended a day of training in Emergency Paediatric First Aid

CEF staff attended an important one day course on Emergency Paediatric First Aid. As we work with many children it is essential to be prepared as we never know when we will need to use this knowledge.
We are grateful to our teacher Graham Buckley for sharing his knowledge and experience.

(Photo of CEF staff, with Graeme CEF's Australian manager, and their teacher Graham and their translator Lieu as well as the dummies they worked with through the day)

Drowning: A silent killer ~ Guest blog by Graeme, CEF's Australian Manager

An editorial in the Lancet this month draws our attention to some shocking facts: ‘…more than 360 000 people are estimated to die from drowning worldwide. The young, poor, and marginalised are among the worst affected. Most of the world's drowning deaths occur in children, making drowning one of the leading causes of death for children and young people. Drowning incidences in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) are over three times higher than in high-income countries, where many people, including children, need to live and work near water to have livelihoods or go to school, but lack effective support to do so safely.’

The above aptly describes the reality in Viet Nam where up to 15 children drown every day. CEF has over 250 children in it’s education programs and they all live close to water of some sort be it the sea, a river, a fish pond or lake. Every year we bring as many of these young people as we can to the beach for a water safety day. We work with Swim Vietnam to help them understand the dangers they face when they get in the water and they are taught how to float and when they can do this the basics of swimming. It’s a fun day too with games on the beach, lunch and then a trip to the cinema. We know of one case when a young man who attended the day several times got into trouble in water and didn’t drown because he knew what to do.

If you’d like to volunteer to help us at the beach this year on Sunday May 28 do email us.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31269-2/fulltext?dgcid=etoc-edschoice_email_13May

Photo from the article

A CEF university student studied child sexual abuse ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms Kim Chi

Child sexual abuse is more common than we like to think. It's an uncomfortable subject to think about and talk about, but is very important to discuss and educate children about. This year CEF started introducing this subject to our students. Below Kim Chi wrote about the experience of one of our students learning about this subject.

L is in her third year at Hue University of Economics and also volunteers for an NGO in Hue. She has attended a lot of training sessions with them and recently one called ’Child sexual abuse’ impressed her. She shared her experience with me in our monthly mentoring session and here is an extract from our conversation:
‘I was very lucky to have the opportunity to take part in a training session called “How to prevent child sexual abuse” which was organized by the NGO I volunteer for. Although I am 21, I’m still embarrassed to talk about topics to do with sex. The training gave me more confidence and taught me more about this issue. I also heard real stories from the children about child sexual abuse which they thought was normal. Most of the children participating in the session were aged six to fifteen and knew very little about the topic. I thought the parents should take part in this training as well so they have greater awareness of child sexual abuse and can help to prevent it.’

CEF photography project to run through June for our local CEF students

Here at CEF we do what we can to encourage creativity when we can get enough students with free time. Each year we have an art day when we have a volunteer art teacher. Throughout June, while the students are on holiday we are planning to run a photographic project.

We still need some help. We need funds for small point and shoot cameras, for developing the photos, for photo frames and for prizes.

The photos are of some of the CEF children taking photos.

If you can help please get in touch: c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com