NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Whenever Nyokabi Lenana, a resident of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, visits coastal regions where swimming is a fundamental undertaking, she feels relaxed venturing into water with her two-year-old daughter.
This level of confidence and ease has only become possible out of the knowledge that her child has mastered water safety skills through a program she enrolled in nearly a year ago.
"Her father's native home is in a coastal area where we visit often. I just want to make sure that she is safe whenever she is around water, so I enrolled her for classes when she was just over a year old," Lenana said during a recent interview.
The mother was inspired by numerous online videos of toddlers swimming before they could even walk, but more significantly by the story of Mary Njonjo Ngini, a water safety instructor who owns WaterSafe Kenya, a business dedicated to teaching water safety to infants and toddlers.
Ngini nearly drowned at the age of two when she loosened from her father's grip and ran into their family pool without warning.
WaterSafe Kenya is the first of its kind in the country. Ngini said it has gained the attention of urban parents. There are more than 20 children enrolled in the program.
Ngini was getting ready to welcome Kiaan, a seven-month-old baby, for his swimming lesson.
In the pool, Ngini held Kiaan in the crook of her arm, offering words of encouragement -- a routine that put him at ease. Before long, Kiaan felt released in the water, and by instinct or memory, the little one gently surfaced, with his feet kicking and arms paddling amid short breaths.
How can an infant, who doesn't yet understand spoken languages, learn to swim? Ngini explained that she and her fellow instructor Jerry Collins taught children to hold their breath with repetitive cues.
"We give them a gentle press on their backs and then dip them into the water. If you do this repeatedly, they learn that they need to hold their breath," Ngini said.
The process is repeated for the next few days until the children have mastered their breath control, and then they move on to the next lesson which is floating and kicking, also taught through repetitive cues.
According to Ngini, there is a misconception about infant self-rescue courses that children are just thrown into water and it is a matter of "sink or swim." "This couldn't be further from the truth."
Ngini said that modern infant survival swimming courses emphasize gentle, child-centered approaches and are supported by a wealth of research on child development and water safety.
"Teaching children how to turn onto their backs, float, and remain calm in water at a young age prepares them for any water-related accidents such as drowning. And it is possible to teach an infant as young as six months of age this important life skill," Ngini said.
The highest drowning rates globally are among children aged one to four years, followed by children aged five to nine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
An estimated 236,000 lives are lost to drowning every year but teaching school-age children basic swimming, water safety, and safe rescue skills can prevent these deaths, the WHO said as the world marks World Drowning Prevention Day on July 25.
Although the actual number of drowning cases in Kenya is not known, Ngini said many children in the country drowned due to different circumstances such as lack of supervision, exposure to hazardous water bodies and extreme weather events such as flooding.
One of the benefits that swimming handed Lenana's daughter was uninterrupted sleep throughout the night. "She sleeps deeply and better after attending her classes," the mother said.
"Swimming is one of the best lessons to give to a child," Ngini said. ■
