The simple work of Mrs. Sau Thia

Drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children in our country, to the point that it has become a haunting fear for parents. There is a woman who opens her arms to welcome children, teaching them step by step so they can gain confidence in navigating rivers and streams...

In response to this situation, the Ministry of Education and Training has urged localities to popularize swimming lessons from an early age to equip children with swimming skills. However, the popularization of swimming among students in schools still faces many challenges, and the number of deaths due to drowning continues to rise.

Worried and saddened by the tragic deaths of children due to drowning, Mrs. Sau Thia, undeterred by the hardship, volunteered to teach swimming for free to thousands of students in Thap Muoi.

"A swimming lesson pool" right on the river, owned by Mrs. Sau Thia.

Mrs. Sau Thia, whose real name is Tran Thi Kim Thia, was born in 1952 in Go Cong Dong district, Tien Giang province. She was the sixth child in her family, hence the nickname Sau Thia. Coming from a poor family, and with her parents passing away one after another, she began working odd jobs to make a living and eventually ended up in Hung Thanh commune, Thap Muoi district, Dong Thap province. She moved there in 1986 and worked various jobs, from weeding and rice planting to weaving water hyacinth, selling lottery tickets, and even doing strenuous work traditionally done by men, such as cutting mangrove trees and carrying heavy loads.

By 1992, she joined the Women's Association in her hamlet and took on additional work selling lottery tickets to supplement her income. In 2002, when Hung Thanh commune implemented a project to popularize swimming for children every summer, Ms. Sau Thia was invited to be a "swimming coach." She readily agreed and also received technical training at the district level before returning to open her own swimming classes.

She said that Hung Thanh commune is located in the flood-prone area of ​​Dong Thap province, and every flood season there are tragic cases of children drowning. Therefore, she wanted to teach the children how to swim to protect themselves and alleviate the worries of their parents.

She confided, "Back then, every time the floods came and I heard on the radio about children drowning, my heart ached. Thinking of the children in the flood-affected areas here, I took on this job of teaching swimming."

Ms. Sau Thia has voluntarily participated as a "coach," teaching swimming for free to more than 2,000 children.

Mrs. Sau Thia's swimming pool for children is also very special, located right on the shallow sections of the river in the commune. To keep the children safe, Mrs. Thia planted bamboo stakes in the river and then used mosquito netting to create a "swimming pool" that is 8m long, 4m wide, and 2m high.

Every day before the children arrive for swimming lessons, Mrs. Thia has to dive into the pool to check if it's safe before letting them in. Not only that, she also does warm-up exercises with the children to help them get ready for swimming and to prevent cramps.

The tools she uses to teach children to swim aren't the usual life vests, but rather bamboo poles floating on the water's surface to form the swimming pool. When they first start learning, she lets all the students hold onto these poles for safety while diving and kicking.

Each swimming lesson lasts about 1.5 hours, each course lasts about 10-15 days, and classes are only held during the 3 summer months. However, with Mrs. Sau Thia's "countryside" swimming teaching experience and her "skillful touch," the students learn to swim very quickly; at most, it takes about 10 days, and some students graduate in just 4 days.

A parent whose child attends Mrs. Sau Thia's swimming class shared: "Mrs. Sau Thia teaches swimming very well! I don't know what her secret is, but she taught my son to swim perfectly in just 10 days. Before that, my wife and I tried to teach our son to kick his legs, but after a whole year of practice, he still couldn't swim."

Initially, Mrs. Sau Thia's swimming lessons for children (usually aged 6-14) were limited to one or two hamlets in the commune, with a fluctuating number of 70-80 children. However, thanks to her dedication and enthusiasm in going door-to-door to encourage children to attend her free swimming classes, the number of participants grew steadily. To date, she has nearly 20 years of experience teaching children to swim, with the number of students reaching thousands. Thanks to her contributions, there have been no cases of child drowning in Hung Thanh commune.

Despite facing extreme hardship and having to make a living selling lottery tickets, every summer, as the flood season approaches, she puts aside all other work to dedicate her time to teaching children how to swim. Some parents, out of gratitude, have offered her money as tuition fees, but she resolutely refuses to accept it. She only accepts the 300,000 VND per class per course, a subsidy from the commune to cover fuel costs.

She shared, "I saw so many cases of children drowning on TV, and it broke my heart. That's why I wanted to teach these kids how to swim so they could protect themselves, not for the money. My happiness comes from seeing children learn to swim and ensuring no child drowns." Although she lives a lonely life, teaching thousands of children to swim, treating them like her own grandchildren, brings her joy and happiness.

For her contributions, Ms. Sau Thia was awarded a certificate of merit by the People's Committee of Dong Thap province for her outstanding achievements in teaching swimming to children. Notably, in 2017, she was included in the Top 100 outstanding women globally selected by the BBC. In 2018, she was one of three individuals in the Mekong Delta to receive the KOVA Award.

Commenting on her, Mr. Le Minh Hoan, Secretary of the Dong Thap Provincial Party Committee, expressed his deep respect, saying: "Ms. Sau Thia, being a woman without a family, cares for and teaches all the children learning to swim as if they were her own children and grandchildren, and treats their parents as her own relatives. She must possess boundless love for children to be willing to undertake such a humane and charitable act."

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Tam-guong-cuoc-song/Viec-lam-binh-di-cua-ba-Sau-Thia-i535329/