Good morning.
I welcome all of you to the expert meeting on child drowning prevention.
Drowning is a silent epidemic claiming more than 2,000 children’s lives per year in Viet Nam. The rate of child drowning in Vietnam is higher than other Southeast Asian countries and 10 times higher than that of developed countries.
Four months ago, June this year, we joined the launch of a new life-saving child drowning prevention program.
We appreciated the leadership and commitment of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to save lives of children from drowning.
We also appreciated the Bloomberg Philanthropies for their generous support to global child drowning prevention efforts, in which Viet Nam is one of the priority countries.
Equipping with survival swimming and water safety skills is the effective way to prevent drowning in school-aged children in Viet Nam. In addition, teaching children survival swimming skills has shown that it does not lead to increased engagement in high-risk behaviors in waters.
Provision of day care service is the effective way to prevent drowning of children under 5 in Viet Nam. In Bangladesh, evidence has already shown that effective supervision of young children lowers the risk of drowning by 3.3 times compared with those without.
For last couple of months, the team developed draft guideline for survival swimming and water safety skills. The team also developed draft guideline for day care. These draft guidelines will be presented to you today. We welcome your expert opinion and practical suggestions.
We are fortunate to have world experts on drowning prevention with us today who will share their valuable comments and experience to help us finalize the guidelines and start implementing life-saving interventions to end avoidable drowning-related deaths among children in Viet Nam.
I look forward to your active participation in the discussions.
Thank you.