Learning to swim may not seem like a priority when settling in Australia. However, the reality is that people born outside of Australia are overrepresented each year in our drowning statistics.
Royal Life Saving Society Australia produces the National Drowning Report each year. The research shows that drowning numbers in multicultural communities are disproportionately high, and water safety knowledge is poor.
“On average over the past 10 years around Australia, 35 per cent of all drownings have been people from CALD backgrounds, so either people who have recently moved to Australia or people whose parents weren’t born in Australia. So that statistic is over-represented.”
That was Michael Masseni, Manager of Diversity and Inclusion at Life Saving Victoria.LSVpartners with organisations and schools to deliver swimming programs to CALD groups.
The National Drowning Report also reveals that 80 per cent of drownings are men.
“We believe that this is because men are generally bigger risk-takers. Maybe they overestimate their ability in the water. Sometimes they think they can do things that they can’t. And also particularly in our CALD groups, so people who are newly arrived to the country. Women might come from countries where physical activity, sport and swimming aren’t really a priority for them. It’s not generally accepted in some cultures overseas.”
Many unique risk factors contribute to the alarming drowning rates among multicultural communities.
Most Australian-born children have access to school swimming programs and public water safety programs. Most Australians live on the coastline or have access to swimming pools, and view water as both utilitarian and recreational. This is not always the case for our CALD communities.
Sophia grew up in Eritrea and moved to Kenya as a refugee. She had no swimming or water safety knowledge when she arrived in Australia.
“There was no opportunity to learn how to swim. The days I went to the pool, I can just count two or three days in my life before I came to Australia. So, there was not really any opportunity for me to learn, even though I was very interested in swimming.”
Click on the player above to listen to this update in Punjabi.
