AYAD Volunteer Erin Greaves comments on progress so far in her assignment

Progress Report – 2011

BSF Asia – Swimming and Water Safety Program for Children and Young People with Disabilities.

In 2011 the swimming programs with YPAC and Sjaki Tari Us have been running successfully, and have provided the children and young people at both of those organizations with positive swimming experiences. At the commencement of my placement with BSF in early August, the programs were running with support from BSF in the form of provision of qualified instructors (both programs, instructors contracted by BSF and paid on a causal basis), as well as pool entry and drinking water for YPAC program.

Since the commencement of my placement I have been attending these programs; teaching swimming and water safety alongside the instructors, working with the students and instructors, building relationships with students, organization staff and instructors, identifying areas of these programs that could benefit from improvement/additional development and training, and identifying ways to both strengthen the positive aspects of these programs, and ensure that they are positive, effective and sustainable.

It has been essential to work with and build effective relationships with the students, organizations, staff and instructors, as to begin to implement any new ideas, programs or training it is essential to first have developed positive relationships with all the people involved. Throughout the past five months I have been developing the program in three parallel areas:

Direct contact/teaching swimming and water safety
– Building relationships with the students, organizations, staff and instructors
– Developing an awareness of the way/s in which the instructors have been working with the students, the goals and focus of the parents and teachers, and the learning styles of both the students, and the overall style of learning within Balinese culture.
– Modeling effective swimming and water safety teaching techniques for working with children and young people with disabilities.

Program and resource development
– Developing resources for instructors/staff containing specific tips/information for teaching water safety and water familiarization to children and young people with disabilities.
– Developing a series of lesson plans (10 at each key development level) that are inclusive and allow for a range of additional needs/disabilities, to be used alongside the resources, as the instructors, teachers and organization staff develop their skills.
When these are developed, and training is conducted, it will be threefold: the information resources, lesson plans, and modeled teaching (as discussed previously).

Developing and expanding the program throughout Bali, enabling more children to access this essential training.
– Making connections with disability-focused organizations
– Meeting with them to discuss BSF and they way/s in which we may work together on a swimming and water safety program
– Discussing the ways in which this will work and can be implemented at each particular organization, and commencing the development of an action plan, in order to begin running program/s with these organizations.
– Liaising and build networks with relevant people and organizations that may be supportive or effective in the development of these programs, and/or swimming and water safety in Bali.
– This process has taken some time, as often these organizations are quite busy and contact has been infrequent, and in addition, until recently I have been required to focus on other BSF projects, so have had to put this aspect of my placement effectively on hold. However over the past two weeks I have been able to re-connect with these organizations, and aim to begin new programs with them in early 2012. 

In early 2012 I aim to build on this, and hope to commence delivering the program, training and resources, to several disability organizations throughout Bali in January/February 2012.

Erin P Greaves
December 2011