Could a summer swimming camp lead to the discovery of future olympic potential in Belize? The Coast Guard instructors think so, the closing of the Belize Police Department's annual swimming program came to an end today, and Jomarie Lanza stopped by Old Belize to see the progress that the kids have made these past few weeks. Here's how it went.
Last week a few dozen of these children between the ages of 5 and 15 were slowly progressing towards becoming strong swimmers. And now that the class has come to an end, 60 of them have earned certificates but also a survival skill thanks to the guidance of professionals, these coast guard officers.
Andrew Moody, Belize Coast Guard
"We have different lengths of the pool that we are using. We have the entire width of this pool here at old Belize for the advanced team and if you looked at what we had here today we had a five year old who applied the technique, she listens and she applies every technique that we tell her to do and she was able to swim across this entire pool and Then we have a depth of 12 feet which is approximately 40 ft we have another class to swim across and we have an additional id say 100 meters for them to swim across and those are the different stages of the classes and we have seen that out of the 62 only 2 of the kids were unable to be recommended as a pass."
"Over the past 2 weeks we have given them all the tools all the techniques but what we have noticed is that they are unable to let go of the fear that they have, to have them swim across any one of the stretches that we have as the test so we will have to get them back, have them in the water a little bit longer and try to build that confidence more in them."
Moody says that they were impressed by the level of swimming these children were able to reach - so much so that they believe some of them even have Olympic potential.
Andrew Moody, Belize Coast Guard
"Not only do we teach them how to survive we taught them how to properly do the techniques that they will need to move and enjoy the waterways as they move from this program and not only that from last year we had partnered with some other guys who have the interest in pushing them to an Olympic standard so there will be small competition right after we finish in Belmopan where we will compete with other kids from across the country that have been working with different coaches and they will be able to compete in the pool and be able to win some medals."
Satisfied with the success and outcome of the program, Commander for National Community Policing Howell Gillett says that they hope to expand this program to other districts and give children the same opportunity to learn this critical skill.
Howell Gillett, Commander of National Community Policing Unit
"What we are trying to do among many other things is to get young people closer to law enforcement, the Coast Guard and the police in a non law enforcement activity, we have to level the playing field. Many of these children would not have had an opportunity to swim. Swimming lessons are very expensive and the cheapest I am told is $75 per hour so I believe some of them would not have been able to come. Young people need that opportunity to recreate, active minds don't involve themselves with negative activities and so we are so pleased that so many of them have learned. And what we want to do now because we are getting requests from the other districts why only Belize City people are asking and so we have to move to other areas and I am putting the coast guard on notice that we have to move to the other districts because there are other children who cannot afford it also and we have to be able to help them. As we saw just now the age range is from 5-15 and the 5 year old was categorised in the upper group and so we were pleased by that for a 5 year old to be swimming across so it shows that the training is working it shows that the collaboration among law enforcement agencies can work and it is so pleasing that we want to continue this every year."
