The initiative came about after several stories emerged involving children drowning a metre or two from safety. They would not have needed to swim 50 metres to survive; they would only have needed to know how to move as little as five metres through the water to get to safety.
Our squads, made up of full time professional instructors and volunteers who want to share their joy of swimming with children, visit public swimming pools to teach the basics of survival swimming:
During one of our pilot programme sessions, it took just one two-hour lesson, for four instructors to assess and upskill 55 children.
These lessons are offered free of charge and are organised with the kind permission of facilities’ officers and by appointment.
If you are a strong swimmer, you can become a Survival Swimming instructor and teach life-saving skills.
The NSRI has three core Drowning Prevention programmes – Water Safety Education, Pink Rescue Buoys and Survival Swimming – and offers a range of free resources and educational materials.
“What drives me is knowing the Survival Swimming skills we teach, not only can save a life one day but will also change the lives of generations to come.’’
The NSRI has secured a significant three-year partnership with the Victor Daitz Foundation and World Relief Australia to fund a dedicated Drowning Prevention Instructor in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal.
In December 2024, while visiting family in Kuruman, Reagan Gellant received a phone call that no parent should have – his nine-year-old son suffered a non-fatal drowning incident at Meiringspoort and was being rushed to the hospital. Reagan later learned that his son’s life had been saved by a doctor who happened to be at the scene and could administer emergency care on the spot.
For many students at Rhodes University, learning to swim has never been a simple or accessible opportunity. Despite the presence of a campus swimming pool, many students have had little or no exposure to swimming lessons or water safety education, while others have always wanted to learn but never had the chance.
When 335 young people gathered at the recent Western Cape Scouting-in-Schools leadership development Camp, they expected just a week of Scouting, leadership and fun. With the support of the NSRI, many left with an additional life skill that could save lives: confidence in the water. And, for over a hundred, the beginning of a potential future in water safety, lifeguarding and volunteering with the NSRI.
When Petro Meyer joined the NSRI on 1 September 2018, she couldn’t have imagined she’d one day be teaching in a swimming pool that arrived inside a shipping container. But her enthusiasm had already put her ahead of the curve.
On 8 December, the still waters of Elandsberg Dam rippled with laughter, courage, and determination. It was the National Sea Rescue Institute’s annual survival swimming exercise for children who graduated from the Riebeek Kasteel Survival Swimming Centre – a day when safety met community spirit and young learners put the lessons they had practised in a container pool to the test in a dam.
