City Logistics Empowers the Youth With Valuable Life Skills

City Logistics in partnership with the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), has equipped 5,844 children with essential drowning prevention skills over the past three months.

Children at three Gauteng schools, and two KwaMashu schools in KwaZulu-Natal received lessons in water safety.

68 children between the ages of 2 and 6 years old at Little Stars Day Care and Pre-School Creche, 1,699 learners at Emmangweni Primary School and 1,538 learners at Tswelopele Secondary School, all in Gauteng, have been educated on Water Safety through the NSRI’s Schools Drowning Prevention Programme.

In KZN 1,307 learners at Isibonelo Senior Secondary School and 1,232 learners at Quarry Heights Primary School also received these vital skills.

The programme was initiated in 2006.

NSRI drowning prevention instructors believe that “water safety is a life skill that all children should be given. Our lessons are made up of years of practical experience. We teach children how to avoid danger in and around water, how to help a friend who is in difficulty, who to call for help and lastly, how to do CPR.”

“The children loved the lessons, and learners and learners engaged enthusiastically with follow-up questions for the NSRI instructors,” said a spokesperson for the NSRI. Children are being taught water safety, to help prevent drowning incidents, particularly during the holidays and rainy seasons.

The NSRI’s Drowning Prevention programmes teach children in disadvantaged communities basic Water Safety skills and where there is access to safe, clean water such as municipal swimming pools and survival swimming.

“Our rescue crew are all unpaid volunteers who, at a moment’s notice, will leave their families or workplace to head out to assist a stranger. We are a well-equipped team and join hands with other rescue services to search for and rescue any person or animal, who finds themselves in difficulty on the sea or on inland estuaries, rivers and dams,” said NSRI spokesman Andrew Ingram.

Through its Community Driven for Youth CSI initiative, City Logistics is invested in uplifting youth in communities around its distribution centres across the country, especially through education, health, wellness and entrepreneurship drives.