HPE students participate in water safety promotion programme in rural areas of the Greater Bay Area

The Department of Health and Physical Education (HPE) always look for platforms through which our students can apply what they have learnt from University to benefit local community and beyond. In May, around 30 students from the department participated in a community outreach programme where they acted as the main or assistant swimming coach to teach teenagers swimming safety knowledge, tips, and skills in rural towns in western Guangdong Province.

“Figures showed that there is inadequate safety awareness among school kids when playing water sports in mainland China and as a result, drowning rates are particularly high in the rural areas. To improve the situation, the Hong Kong Swimming Teacher's Association (HKSTA) has cooperated with the Orphan Education Society Guangdong (OESG) to implement the Rural Water Safety Knowledge Promotion Activity in various rural communities of Guangdong since 2017,” said Tam Wan-lam, senior instructor from the association.

To prepare our students for helping in the water safety promotion activity, HPE coordinated with HKSTA and OESG to provide training for around 30 students from the Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Physical Education) (BEd(PE)) and Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Sports Science and Coaching) (BSc(SPSC)) programmes. After receiving training, our students assisted in three five-day safety workshops for school children co-organised by HKSTA and OESG in the rural towns of Sihe (思賀鎮) and Qianguan (千官鎮) in western Guangdong Province in May.

Mr Tam Wan-lam, a veteran swimming instructor, has many years of experience in promoting water safety in the rural areas of Guangdong. He guided our students in implementing the three workshops o CP - Water Safety Workshop on the mainland in May. “EdUHK students performed well in the safety awareness activity even though it was their first time. While school students from rural areas improved their water safety awareness through the workshops, EdUHK students got an opportunity to practise what they have learnt from the training course. Through the activity, EdUHK students have also gained valuable teaching experience in the Greater Bay Area,” Mr Tam said.

Mr Roy Chan Ching-yat from HPE, who supervised the whole community outreach programme, said, “Under the co-supervision of Hong Kong Swimming Teacher's Association and the Orphan Education Society Guangdong, our students provided three five-day workshops serving more than 300 teenagers in the rural towns of Sihe and Qianguan. HPE students not only trained the teenagers basic skills of swimming, like how to breathe, stay afloat in water and different swimming strokes techniques, but also taught them basic rescue techniques.”

Jason Lee, a third-year student of the BEd(PE) programme, said he is overjoyed to see that while most children had zero knowledge about swimming before the workshop, they achieved more than a pass after it. “In Hong Kong, we use different approaches to teach students how to swim. However, in the workshops designed for teenagers from the rural areas, we used more direct approach to teach them how to swim. There were around fifty children in one workshop class. I learnt from experienced instructors on how to divide them into smaller groups to facilitate learning. All in all, this is a very meaningful activity as it taught young villagers how to swim and hence prevent them from drowning.” he said.

Mr Chan thanked HKSTA and OESG for arranging the training course and the community outreach activity in western Guangdong Province for EdUHK students. “The outreach activity gave our students very valuable opportunity to gain teaching experience in the Greater Bay Area. Promoting water safety among teenagers in rural areas on the mainland is important, as statistics shows that they have higher drowning rates. Indeed, teenagers elsewhere often engage in risky behaviours around water, such as swimming alone and in unfamiliar waters. By equipping teenagers with the knowledge and skills to stay safe in water and how to assist during rescues, we can help reduce the likelihood of drowning incidents and save precious lives,” Mr Chan added.