Swim to Survive

The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation has been supporting the Swim to Survive program in Quebec since 2013 thanks to its Ambassador, Alexandre Bilodeau, double Olympic gold medalist in freestyle skiing. This project, led by the Lifesaving Society, aims to teach basic aquatic skills to survive a fall in deep water to students aged 8 and over, thus reducing drowning risks.

Between 2014 and 2018, nearly 13,000 schoolchildren participated in swimming lessons in Montreal. Practical sessions in the pool and theory lessons give them valuable advice to best react in the event of a fall into the water: keep calm, turn around, float and identify a way out safely.

In Canada, most drownings occur due to accidents in the cold waters of lakes and rivers throughout the territory.

Although swimming is the most popular recreational activity for children aged 6 to 11, there are usually no swimming lessons in the school curriculum for children of this age in Quebec. The Lifesaving Society has therefore decided to offer all 8-year-old students the chance to learn the basic rules of water safety.

Project goals:

To share the Swim to Survive program with at least 3,500 students, with at least 25% of these students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

To introduce young people from recent immigrant populations to an aquatic structure close to their school and encourage them to return with their families to continue learning how to swim, to enroll in an aquatic course or to swim.