Drowning is often under looked as a public death threat. According to the Kenya police records, about 4,607 deaths in 2018 alone were caused by drowning. Every year, many people in Lamu die from drowning, and one of the causes of this is that many don’t know how to swim. A local charity has set up in Lamu to teach people how to swim in an effort to mitigate this risk. Being a predominantly conservative community, there are challenges around girls/ women swimming, which the charity specifically tackles head on.

Dorcas, the charity’s swimming instructor, narrates why she chose to relocate from Mombasa, almost 240km to her new workstation in Lamu.
“I was at home, yet another victim of the economic crisis caused by the COVID pandemic, and searching for a new job to support myself. A friend informed me that there was an initiative in Lamu looking for a trainer, someone who would equip both girls and women with life-saving skills. The thought behind the initiative seemed very noble, I was all in! That’s how I joined the Pamoja family”

Working at the initiative she witnesses growth in her students that transcends the walls of the swimming pool. She sees confidence and a sense of self-reliance bloom in many of her students, particularly the older women.

In its commitment to bettering the lives of the communities where we work, Davis and Shirtliff, through its #ImprovingLives program, has partnered with Pamoja initiative in this very noble cause. A great part of running the program includes treating the swimming pool to ensure high sanitation levels. Davis and Shirtliff, has donated 6 months’ worth of pool chemicals that will save the initiative a large sum of money which can be channeled to empowering more women and children in the county of Lamu