New podcast episode: Creches for Bangladesh – How RNLI and their partner CIPRB are reducing the risk of drowning in young children

The Learning Post: episode 23

Every day in Bangladesh 40 children under the age of ten drown, with 30 of those children under the age of five.

To mark World Drowning Prevention Day 2023, we spoke to Darren Williams, Programme Manager at RNLI and Dr. Aminur Rahman, Deputy Executive Director and Drowning Prevention lead at Center for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) to learn more about their UK Aid Match project in Bangladesh.

Together, RNLI and CIPRB have set up 300 Anchals – community-based creches – to provide a safe space for children to play and learn away from open water. These Anchals provide much-needed supervision whilst parents are hard at work and older siblings are at school.

The project was so successful that RNLI and CIPRB have now partnered with the government of Bangladesh on a national scale-up programme to continue this vital work.

Listen in to the podcast episode to learn more about their drowning prevention strategy, and their tips for civil society organisations on engaging governments for national reach.

Extract from podcast

“I think that actually for us, the ability to adapt and deliver COVID prevention messaging and to integrate drowning prevention messaging really helped with the engagement with the local, divisional and the national level government and key stakeholders.”

Listen to the podcast in full on The Learning Post.

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