An RNLI team travelled to Bangladesh in March to help set up the country’s first lifesaving club. And, on 16 April, club member Mohammed Abdul Sukkur saved his first life, rescuing a drowning tourist from a rip current.

Bangladesh has one of the world’s highest drowning rates, with 18,000 deaths a year.

Lifeguards Darren Williams from Swansea and Scott Davidson from Norfolk went to Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh and spent a week with 15 local volunteers – including the country’s first female lifeguard.

For 5 days they covered the basics of being a lifeguard:
• personal fitness
• beach surveillance
• risk assessment
• recognising when someone is in distress
• rescue equipment
• wind, waves and currents
• reaching, retrieving, assessing and treating a casualty.

They spent the final 2 days on a Train the Trainer course to help the volunteers pass on their new skills to others.

As we saw in our last issue, the drowning problem in Bangladesh is huge, particularly among children. International Development Manager Steve Wills says: ‘We are sharing our knowledge to prevent more lives being tragically lost to drowning.

‘Cox’s Bazar is a very popular beach and the volunteers have been doing their best with what little training and equipment they have. The people I’ve met in Bangladesh have a real sense of community and an absolute determination to reduce the massive drowning rates.’

See a video at rnli.org.uk/international.