Primary school children won’t be out on their summer break for
another month and change but today at the YECA on St. Thomas Street it looked
like boys and girls were already on holiday. Hailing from 6 different schools,
the children were at the Y’s pool to mark their graduation from a programme
that thought 150 of them how to swim. Today the students who did well in the
program were awarded for their accomplishment. We spoke with the Y’s General
Secretary Sonia Linares who explained why this swim programme was very special.
Sonia Linares, General Secretary – YWCA
“I know we usually have in the summer time but since last year we
were fortunate to get some funding through the Fiona Stevenson Memorial Fund
and we were able to provide swim classes five schools. And this year, again
we requested further assistance and we got so we were able to do six schools.
This is the first time we decided to have a swim meet. It is the beginning of
something the YWCA wants to do. We are looking to form a swim club so we can
continue to promote swimming in Belize and for our young people.
Fiona Stevenson was a Challenge Volunteer and she worked in the Ministry
of Human Development but she went back to England after her term here and unfortunately
she died in the London bombing and with that the family decided to open a fund
for her and they asked if the YWCA would be able to assist by providing free 
swim classes to children who are unable to pay.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
That’s the primary objective here, to promote swimming?
Sonia Linares,
“Yes to learn basic water safety, to teach children to swim, we feel
we have so many waters, Belize is surrounded by waters and many many young people
and adults can’t swim. So we are fortunate to have this school and we
are able to provide swim classes so that whenever they go to the cayes or go
to the rivers or even in pools, they are able to take care of themselves.
We target different schools. Last time we had five and now we target six
schools. The make sure to mix the schools up and we ask that the teachers select
the children who really can’t swim and who would do with swim lessons
and we got full cooperation from the schools and they were always enthusiastic
to come here swim, and as you can see they have a great time. And many of them
didn’t not even want to touch the water. They were so terrified and fortunately
for us, we had good lifeguards, good swim instructors, and they are able to
get in there. Even Stella Maris, we had quite a bit and the teachers here and
they were so terrified at the beginning and at the end they were even able to
go across as you saw earlier.”
The programme’s outstanding swimmer is thirteen year old Trevor Guy, he is a standard four student at Sister Clara Mohammed School.
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