We’re delighted to report on another successful year at SwimTayka, as we continue our mission to provide free swimming lessons and drowning prevention education to children in under-served communities.
We continue to work with local NGOs and charities to deliver programmes that equip children with vital, life-saving skills, including survival swimming, first aid, and water safety knowledge.
Here are some key achievements from 2024
Our measurable success demonstrates the effectiveness of our sustainable community-focused model:
- Reach:
- 13,700+ children have now been reached by SwimTayka
- 9,700 children have successfully graduated in survival swim skills.
- Expansion:
- 2 new countries were added to our area of operations.
- 8 active programmes delivered life-saving instruction.
- The people:
- 85 dedicated volunteers supported our global efforts.
- 21 local instructors in Bali gained internationally recognised qualifications, securing essential skills within the community for the long term.
Our progress and lasting legacy
The year was marked by developments which set the groundwork to scale up and further the sustainability of our mission:
- Sustainable mentorship: We successfully supported experienced swimming professionals to mentor local instructors and uphold consistent standards across our programmes in Bali, Brazil, and Peru – a model rooted in sustainability and local leadership.
- Training and certification: By awarding internationally recognised teaching qualifications to local instructors, we are investing in the community, and ensuring our programmes become self-sustaining.
- New programmes launched:
- UK: We launched ‘Swim Together’ – our first domestic programme. This initiative was successfully piloted in Nottinghamshire, Leeds, and Blackpool, offering free swimming and water safety lessons to refugee and disadvantaged children.
- Uganda: We commenced the first steps of a five-year plan designed to give over a thousand children the chance to learn water safety and swimming skills.
- Maldives: We laid the foundations for a new programme in this island nation, where the risk of drowning is a daily reality.
Our commitment to sustainability
A central pillar of our strategy is to ‘teach the teacher’. Across all programmes, volunteers work alongside local swim assistants, training them in internationally recognised drowning-prevention techniques. This builds the foundation for self-sustaining programmes managed and led by the communities themselves.
Funding our mission
Finally, a very big thank you to our donors, partners, and volunteers. Every donation, whether it funds a swimming lesson, a local instructor, or a global programme, is a direct investment in saving children’s lives.
We benefited from many fantastic fundraising achievements in 2024. The English Channel Relay remains our flagship effort. In 2024, we supported eight relay teams. We also saw inspiring complementary efforts, including Poppy the dog’s Henley Swim and Mark ‘Scotty’ Scott’s RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Challenge.Our small but mighty charity continues to make a difference worldwide. If you would like to read our annual report, you can do so here.
