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Students teach children to swim
The Rotary Club of Kassel has set itself the goal of helping 500 children from Kassel elementary schools learn to swim in 2022. It is making €20,000 available for this purpose from donations by its members. Companies from Kassel (in particular Kasseler Sparkasse, GWG Kassel, Mercedes-Benz Werk Kassel, Fa. Hübner, Volkswagen) have increased the budget by a total of € 10,000.
The courses are run by students at the Institute for Sports and Sports Science at the University of Kassel. The KVG takes the children to the pool by bus and picks them up there again after the course. The children are accompanied by caregivers from the after-school care centers. The municipal works provide the necessary swimming areas free of charge, and admission to the bath is free.
At the end of the course, the children receive a certificate, a badge (seahorse or frog) and a booklet showing which exercises they have learned.
After a successful pilot during the Easter vacations, another 420 elementary school students are to be taught how to swim during the summer vacations, which are now beginning. The courses will take place in the Auebad and the Hallenbad Süd.
Dr. Sebastian Fischer, head of swimming at the Institute for Sport and Sport Science at the University of Kassel, says: "Basically, the goal is clear: children must be able to swim! The ability to swim forms the basis for opening up the movement space of water with its rich opportunities for sporting activity and social participation. Nevertheless, the picture across Germany is in the opposite direction: the number of non-swimmers of elementary school age is on the rise, and the associated number of fatal swimming accidents has been steadily increasing since 2000. This makes it all the more gratifying that over 50 percent of the children from the Easter campaign received a Seahorse badge at the end of the course. In addition, a look at the attendance list also shows that almost 90% of the children attended all the appointments. Learning to swim is fun!"