Language no barrier to Logan’s swim safety message

Published: 14th November 2022

The trailblazing video from Logan City Council includes messaging in seven languages – Burmese, Mandarin, Swahili, Arabic, Dari, Somali and English.

It features new Australians in the City of Logan celebrating their ability to safely get involved in a range of water-based activities thanks to completing free Council-run learn-to-swim classes. 

The ‘Now I Can Swim’ video supports a matching water safety awareness campaign launched this week by Council and Swim Logan.

The video, which can be viewed here is being shared across a range of multicultural media and social media platforms.

The City of Logan is home to more than 327,000 people from around 217 different cultures.

More than 83,000 of the city’s residents were born overseas. Many speak their native tongue at home.

The languages used in the video were based on feedback from local multicultural communities and those who have participated in Council’s learn-to-swim classes.

Since November 2020, 788 refugees or newly arrived migrants have taken part in the classes.

Council also conducts free swim lessons for the city’s First Nations people and other community groups.

City Lifestyle Chair, Councillor Laurie Koranski, said safety in water-based environments was important for everyone in the City of Logan.

“This amazing multi-lingual video and our Now I Can Swim awareness campaign reaches out directly to our multicultural residents but also is good advice for the whole community,” Cr Koranski said.

“We want everyone to safely enjoy more of the summer fun that the City of Logan and neighbouring areas have to offer.”

The Now I Can Swim awareness campaign uses activities including going to the beach, water parks, pools and fishing to explain the safety benefits of knowing how to swim.

It highlights the importance of supervising children around water and features two refugees who not only learned to swim but have now graduated to become swim instructors.

Kingston resident and participant Thereze Miburo believes swimming is a life skill everyone should have, especially in Australia.

She was a non-swimmer when she arrived from a Burundi refugee camp in 2007 and has set about making sure her sons aged from five to nine-years-old have learnt how to swim.

“It is good to be safe around the water. We should enjoy the water rather than be scared of it.,” she said.

Posters featuring participants in the video will displayed across the community and at City of Logan’s five Council-run public aquatic centres.

A digital marketing campaign and a website Now I Can Swim - Logan Leisure Centres will also spread the water safety message.

Statistics from Australian Royal Life Saving show 27 per cent of drowning deaths in the last decade involved people born overseas.