“Safe Elafonisos” means safer children!
Elafonisos, Greece 11.08.2024. The project “Safe
Elafonisos 2024” was implemented successfully, teaching water safety to 100 pupils
and supported by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, Elafonisos Eco, Elafonisos
Municipality and the Greek Lifesaving Sports Association.
Drowning is a serious public health problem in Greece.
The opportunities for water safety education among children that live in remote
areas is rare. The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, committed to enhance
the safety of children, kindly supported the project “Safe Elafonisos 2024”.
This project was inaugurated with huge success last year.
The onsite training took place at the local school and
Kontogoni Beach. The teaching started using the Water Safety Program “A Chance
For Children” to introduce the children with the core elements of the project.
This program is inspired by true events that occurred during the filming of the
world’s #1 TV series, Baywatch. Then, the children were trained at the sea on
water safety, drowning prevention, lifesaving sport, swimming skills, water
rescues, personal survival at sea (HELP and Huddle positions, survival swimming,
the use of a life-raft, converted a jeans into a flotation device), and basic
life support (recovery position, action for choking and baby CPR).
The online training will continue until the end of the
year. The schoolteachers will receive education through webinars to be able to
deliver the water safety lessons to the children in their classes. In this way,
additional children from this and nearby towns will have the opportunity to
gain water safety knowledge.
Everyone highly commented about the project. The pupils expressed profound enthusiasm. “Please come back again next year”, they said at the last day, when they were presented with their certificates of attendance. Likewise, the leaders of the project were pleased too. The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, is pleased to impact the local population of Elafonisos, where the opportunities for water safety education are rare and vital. The President of Elafonisos Eco, Enrico Toja, expressed his deep satisfaction for the opportunity to support this project that is so dear and important for the islanders. The President of the Greek Lifesaving Sports Association, Dr Stathis Avramidis, was satisfied by the way the children absorbed the acquired knowledge and the international appeal that the project had to participants of 3 nations. The Mayor of Elafonisos, Aggelos Tsirigotakis, expressed his gratitude to all the involved parties that contributed for this initiative. Photos: GLSA.
More
