By RON LANE
IT is now official … the logo that will be used to promote Surf Life Saving Vietnam (S.L.S.V.) has been designed and made public.
This was just one of the announcements made at a recent meeting attended by delegates from surf clubs on the Sunshine Coast interested in supporting Project Vietnam.
Chaired by Sunshine Coast Sports Federation representative Benny Pike, guests were welcomed and David Field, development officer for Surf Life Saving Vietnam, was invited to give a report regarding the situation in Vietnam.
David, the senior delegate in attendance, is a life-member of Cudgen Headland SLSC and Salt SLSC, NSW. In part, his resume told us that he has “spent a good deal of time abroad delivering various development projects across a range of countries”. These include the Philippines and Thailand.
A particular highlight of his time in Vietnam was the successful delivery in collaboration with the local community of a Festival of the Sea, a lifeguard competition which featured lifeguards from Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Australia.
In his address he emphasised the following points: 10,000 a year drown in Vietnam, and their season goes from March to September. At present, Vietnam is a very patriarchal society but women are being encouraged to participate. Also SLSV is training public beach lifeguards in beach management, rescue and resuscitation skills. Also community courses in water safety and basic first-aid are being conducted.
In April, 20 clubbies from Australia will visit Vietnam and attend the Dawn Service Anzac Day ceremony at Long Tan; this will be followed by a life saving display at a back beach. They will then move on to take part in the second Festival of the Sea Surf Carnival at Da Nang.
Perhaps two of the strongest points made by Field were as followers. Vietnam is looking for Australian clubs to become sister clubs – this involvement would be based on the Twinner (Sister) Life Saving Club Agreement as drafted by Surf Life Saving Australia. The second point is that Vietnam is looking for support in two main areas: expertise and equipment.
As a result of David’s report an action plan was drafted.
* Clubs to be approached as to the possibility of donating gear such as rescue tubes and boards.
* A storage point for donated equipment be established.
* Sponsorship for the transportation of gear be investigated.
* Investigate a possible training tour for December or January, 2015/16.
* Promote equipment send off to the media.
Among the life savers to attend the surf carnival at Da Nang will be Ken Dinham of our Noosa club.
Ken, who has been volunteering in Vietnam for the past three years assisting the project, last year met up with David, who at the time was working on an Australian Government supported life saving project. The two men formed a firm friendship. They began working together under the umbrella of Surf Life Saving Vietnam to assist local authorities implement effective beach management, and train lifeguards in prevention, rescue and resuscitation.
In a circular regarding the project, it stated that Surf Life Saving Australia is a partner to SLSV and they assisted the project by shipping rescue boards and other lifesaving equipment to Vietnam. These were distributed to the areas where Ken and David had trained local lifeguards and where an embryonic lifeguard service existed.
Ken’s work has been outstanding. He has been involved in establishing a more effective lifeguard service in the Hoi An area, an area popular with tourists. This has been a problem area as numerous deaths have been recorded.
The meeting was very informative, and despite the workload ahead all delegates were confident of the project being successful.
