GVI swimming at Nyota

GVI swimming at Nyota

Nyota is one of the two schools GVI work with in Mombasa, Kenya.  This week we took a group of Standard 6 students to the pool for swimming lessons. While some of the students had been in water before, others were scared to put their heads under water. Firstly we split the children in to groups based on ability so that we could build on their skill level. Then between the four staff we taught the children how to do freestyle, diving, kick boarding, kicking and floating.

Students from Standard Six

I took the children who were less familiar with the water. First we mastered putting their heads under water. Their smiles and screams of laughter when they popped their heads out of the water were infectious!  Then we accomplished kicking their feet underwater to keep them moving. By the end I couldn’t get them out of the water!

Volunteer Leyla with students

This was a great thing we could do for the students. Not only to improve their swimming skills, but to give them an opportunity to have fun outside of school which they may not have otherwise had.

By the end of the day some of the stronger students were able to dive off the deep end and swim a length of the pool, while the newer students could confidently swim several widths of the pool unassisted. All in all much progress was made and the students had a great day.

Students really enjoyed themselves

 By Leyla Isin

GVI swimming at Nyota