Our Story

The Refugee and Migrant Swimming Project (RMSP) provides free, culturally safe and trauma-informed swimming and water safety lessons to Canberra’s refugee and migrant community.

Every 6 days a person who was born overseas dies by drowning in Australia. In 2020 one of these people was our close friend – an ANU student from a refugee background. Deaths by drowning are preventable with access to appropriate swimming and water safety lessons. While swimming programs for children exist in schools, Canberra has long been the only capital city in Australia without a specialist swimming program for adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Our program provides this critical service to the Canberra refugee and migrant community.

The program caters for participants with no swimming experience and is developed in partnership with Gungahlin Leisure Centre (GLC), Royal Life Saving ACT (RLS), and Migrant And Refugee Settlement Services.

The core program centres around 10 swimming lessons delivered in the heated pool at Gungahlin Leisure Centre, and one water safety lesson at an outdoor waterway. English lessons are provided before each lesson, teaching swimming and water safety related language.  

Our first cohort of swimmers took to the water in early 2022, with great success. Our second cohort will begin in late 2022.