- THE PANJE PROJECT
Aquatic survival projects have been successful in improving children’s knowledge of water risks in the school environment as well as teaching survival swimming and safe rescue skill. The project is running in six cluster areas of Nungwi, Stone town, Matemwe and Paje in Unguja and Chakechake and Michweni district in Pemba.
The role of the Aquatic Survival Programme is to prevent drowning by:
- providing water safety messages
- teaching people how to save themselves in the water
- teaching people how to save someone else in the water
The project is divided into two main area
1. Water Safety Messages
Many drowning deaths can be prevented by learning how to stay safe in and around the water, and how to keep others safe. Water safety messages provides the Community with and awareness of 10 key simple water safety messages and skills that can be taught without the need to enter in the water.
Water safety Education – Schools: The Panje Project has been working with the support of the Ministry of education and Vocational training – Department of Sport to train school teachers in government schools to deliver water safety education lessons. Over 1000 teachers have been trained approximately 400 schools in Unguja and Pemba.
Water safety education – Community Sensitization: Panje Project organize community sensitization events across the cluster areas with the community leaders. These events involve community gathering with different stake holders and the Panje Project share information, organize drama or show film about the swimming programme. The community get an opportunity to ask questions and the Panje Project answers questions and identify key community based organization for swimming training capacity building.
- We have achieved over 10,000 who received a water safety education in all districts of Unguja and Pemba.
2. Survival Swimming
Most deaths by drowning occur when people with poor swimming skills accidently step or fall into water too deep to stand. Survival swimming teaches self-survival and gives people taking part the necessary skills to swim to safety or to float in the water and wait for help to arrive. People learn how to rescue a person safely without getting into the water, how to reduce the opportunity for increased risk-taking behaviour, all participants must have a good understanding of the key water safety messages. students are learning Movements, Breathing, Floating, Push and glide, Kicking, Arms / arms and legs and Self-rescue and Rescuing others.
- Survival swimming with children and youths. The Panje Project through the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training – Director of Sports, are working together to teach survival swimming to children from public schools and madrasa.
- Survival swimming with other organization in Zanzibar. The Panje Project is working closely with Zanzibar Scout Association and Red Cross in Zanzibar to deliver the survival swimming lessons so as to enlarge the outreach of the program.
- We have training more than 10,000 children on survival swimming with 49% female and 51% male also we have trained more than 350 adult mostly female seaweed farmers.
Other activity related to swimming done by the Panje Project is to support the local community.The Project Project has handed over the rescue boat and the machine for the purpose of being used to deal with sea disaster in Nugwi village. The rescue boat and the machine were given to the Nungwi Elderly Committee and Nugwi Fisherman Committee in front of the Executive Director Makame Khatibu Makame from Zanzibar Commission for disaster management.