PPCD Members: international
Tonia Roberts-Ferreira
Hello, my name is Tonia Roberts and I am from Trinidad & Tobago. I am a mother
of five (5) great kids, and have been an Educator and Teacher in various capacities
for over 28 years. For the past 15, I have been teaching swimming lessons, with the
past four (4) of those in Infant Self-Rescue Survival Swimming Lessons.
When I became a mother, our family were at the beach and witnessed 2 teenagers
lose their life to drowning. I got involved in teaching swimming as a means of
overcoming my own fear of the water. After several years of teaching and looking
into drowning prevention methods, I came across ISR (Infant Swimming Resource),
and just knew that I had to get Certified in such an awesome drowning prevention
program. With this new passion, I realize how extremely important it became to me
that everyone should be educated on the dangers of drowning and ways in which it
can be prevented, because it can.
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Twenty-one (21) years ago, I lost a child, not to drowning, but the loss of a child is
never easy. Our children are so precious to us and it is our job as parents to
be diligent in keeping them safe. I welcome the opportunity to be a part of any
program that advocates drowning prevention and thank you for your efforts.
My name is Janah Reynolds, I am a happily married mother of 2 boys. I am a world traveler, expat currently living in Hong Kong. We are always around water. Either on boats, or at the beach or pool. It is very important to me that people receive this education of prevention as one of my friends and bridesmaid lost her child to drowning a few summers ago.
Victoria Allen
British Columbia, Canada. My name is Victoria and I am a work-from-home mum to twin toddlers Elizabeth & Juliet. My mum had a near-drowning incident as a child, and it was very important to her that my sister and I knew how to swim and had a good understanding of and respect for water safety. Now that I have children of my own, it’s important to me that they are also raised to be strong swimmers and know how to stay safe around water. Teaching your children is only one step. Teaching parents the steps they can take to prevent drowning and keep their children safe is just as crucial, and my goal is to create awareness in my community and help everyone stay safe and enjoy the water!
Waterwise Swim School Perth was started by Stacy Gower in 2013 when she recognized that traditional swim programs were not teaching children the skills they would need to survive an aquatic mishap. She tailored her swim school’s curriculum to focus on getting children surviving independently in water as quickly as possible. She was trained as a survival swim instructor later that year and is passionate about preventing childhood drowning.
Sarah Philpot- Ambassador PPCD
Australia- My name is Sarah and I have always had a love for water, I grew up having a pool and was always a convenient swimmer.
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I have 3 kids, Brody 9, Bentley 6 and Heidi 3, after having kids I always worried about the dangers of them drowning, so when I found out about a survival swim school that was opening close by I instantly enrolled my daughter who was 18months at the time.
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Through them I learned just how high the drowning statistics were and made a promise to myself that I would do everything in my power to bring them down!
My name is Skye Portelli I am a big believer in water safety and I feel in Australia doesn't take water safety seriously. I am a swimming instructor teaching children to float and survive I would love to get the drowning number to 0.
My name is Monica Fernandez, I am from Guatemala.
I was a triathlete and won the Ultraman World Championship in Hawaii in 2000 and 2001.
15 years ago, while pregnant with my first child, I decided I needed to change profession, but what? After thinking that I would not be able to train and race as I used to since I wanted to be with my child while he was tiny. The idea came to me as I imagined my baby would be the first baby in the world to swim since I swam so much. So like an epiphany thought of becoming a swim teacher and that is when my research started. I love finding out how things work, what are the best options, I like the best always. I am a CPR instructor and studding to be a paramedic (I like to know how things work to the fullest).
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My research started about swimming lessons, different approaches, and was able to figure out that kids were not able to learn how to swim before the are 4 cause they lack motor skills and coordination to swim (AAP)*this information as been update to prevent drownings, but also found out that by floating they can save themselves. I decided that before swimming being safe was FIRST. I contacted the different survival swim schools, no luck. Started by taking traditional swim instruction courses, but kept looking for the floating part, so when my kids were born I figure out a way to teach them all the safety skills possible, but the first on is was to FLOAT. Then my friends asked me to teach their kids and word spread out and start to teach others and now over 600 children have taken the course and have 16 testimonies of survival thanks to the program. https://babysurvivalswim.com/
I have requests form many parts of the world for this method so after years decided that I had to take this knowledge to other parts of the world.
Because I wanted to be a swim teacher I did the research, if not, the information would have never came to me and I could have been one more parent with a drowned child (arm floats, false self confidence, drowning during no swim time, takes seconds, it is silent, etc). Information is now more available, pediatricians have the responsibility to inform parents. I call myself an activist in drowning prevention and I spread the word any chance I have.
Dubai , UAE: DAIVIK FOREVER FOUNDATION was developed after the loss of our son who was attending a Birthday party and was taken on an unplanned pool trip by a family member who left him unattended while he drowned. It was the same time after we realized that our lives changed forever, and our heart broken forever.
Our mission is to bring water safety awareness, education, and survival skills to prevent childhood drownings early childhood water safety training.