By Sahar Foladi
With summer here already, Chisholm along with Life Saving Victoria (LSV) has been running ‘Meet the Lifeguard’ sessions for migrants.
The sessions are held in its Dandenong and Cranbourne campuses run by Ramzi Hussain with plans to expand it to Berwick, Springvale and Frankston campuses next year.
Claire Gregory Educational Manager from Chisholm said they’ve been working with Lifesaving Victoria since 2018 with their EAL students, as water safety is an important part of living in Australia.
“Life Saving Victoria does different things but this year we’ve started again with their sessions called Meet the Lifeguard and that’s exactly that.
“Water safety is a very key message we wanted to get out to our students,” Ms Gregory said.
Ms Gregory said most of the students study under the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and that’s fully funded by the Australian Government to support humanitarian entrants and migrants to learn English.
“We can see there’s a need for not just learning English but learning about the new country they’re living in.
“One important part of living in Australia is water safety and understanding Australian conditions which could be quite different from many countries our students come from.”
Mr Hussain from Life Saving Victoria has been delivering the ‘Meet the Lifeguard’ sessions in the student’s native Afghan language to help them understand better and show steady progress.
“Ramzi comes along to our campuses and does great presentations about water safety and they’re very fun engaging sessions which can be delivered to students from different levels,” Ms Gregory said.
Mr Hussain has an interesting and broad experience in his seven years of being a Lifeguard.
From a migrant who came to Australia without any knowledge of water safety or swimming, he sure has come a long way.
He learnt about it all in a water safety session in his school where a lifesaver educated their class and that’s when it all started kicking in.
After taking on swimming lessons at Casey and Dandenong swimming pools, Mr Hussain was inspired by the first ever Afghan lifeguard in Dandenong Oasis.
“If he was there and could do it, I can become a lifeguard too,” and from then on Mr Hussain has gone to become not just a Lifeguard but a full-time Recreational Officer at Dandenong Oasis and now working as Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator at Life Saving Victoria.
Mr Hussain said according to research, people born overseas are two times more likely in danger than people born in Australia.
“It is a high risk group and this is why we are looking into working more in this field and getting more role models, reaching out to community groups.”
In September LSV delivered the Meet the Lifeguard sessions to around 200 students in its Dandenong campus.
“South-East Leisure actually provides some of the funding to Life Saving Vic as well as the funding from Migrant Council of Australia.
“With the help of these two funding bodies we are facilitating programs for many organisations within the City of Dandenong that includes the AMES, Tafe, schools and local community centres to help them learn the basics of water safety,” Mr Hussain said.
As one of the most welcoming cities for refugees, according to ‘Settlement Cities’ report by Edmund Rice Centre, Greater Dandenong needs the ongoing tremendous support to not just be the most welcoming city, but also resolve major issues affecting migrants such as unemployment.
Life Saving Victoria supports migrants through employment for people who are passionate.
“We can help train participants just like me, get them trained into surf life savings, swim teaching and get them a job at the local swimming pool as well.
“So this helps the settlement of the newly arrived in Australia,” Mr Hussain said.
Chisholm along with Mr Hussain plan to take the students learning water safety to the Beach Program next year.
“We’re looking at around 300-400 students being able to take part across 4 days. We’ll also likely have more Meet the Lifesaver sessions if LSV has availability, and possibly pool visits as well,” Ms Gregory said.
Mr Hussain said LSV’s goal for next year will be to continue carrying out these programs in an increased amount.
“All these programs rely on funding if we get more funding we’re looking at delivering more programs looking into running at least 1,000 swimming lessons in City of Greater Dandenong.
“We’re looking into training 20-24 more lifeguards to help them become a role model both at the swimming pool and the beach so people feel safe,” Mr Hussain said.
