According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha, recently, drowning and child drowning deaths have declined compared to previous periods, but it still remained high and led cause of death and injury for children. Approximately 2,000 children die each year of drowning, a figure that is higher than those in South East Asia and eight times higher for high-income countries, affecting their rights, especially the right to survival.

In order to reduce child drowning deaths, Viet Nam has actively implemented community-based awareness raising activities on drowning prevention. The interdisciplinary plan on child drowning prevention for the period 2017 - 2020 has been signed by nine ministries, sectors and unions.

Recognizing the Government of Vietnam's efforts to reduce the incidence of child deaths from drowning, Mrs. Kelly Larson, director of the Public Health Program at the Bloomberg Charity Foundation said: "Since 2012, our foundation has supported child drowning prevention programs in Bangladesh and the Philippines. Over the past five years, the program has been very successful in the two countries through the implementation of specific and appropriate interventions for the community and people in each country. Some key activities are organizing high-risk child care, swimming and water safety skills, pool building in the community, improving skills for the community and implementing evaluation studies. The Bloomberg Foundation has funded the World Health Organization (WHO) to build important data and publish a Global Report on Drowning.

"When the program was launched in Bangladesh in 2012, many people thought that this was a new issue, drowning was a silent killer, but they did not think it was a problem and a burden. In Vietnam, you are aware of the importance of drowning prevention for children. We have had a long journey and have made great strides in the prevention of child drowning. Through the joint implementation of programs with the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the prevention of drowning for children will have more positive results ", said Mrs. Kelly Larson.

On behalf of the Ministry's leadership, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha thanked The Bloomberg Foundation and the Global Health Policy Advocacy Foundation for effective support on implementation of child drowning in many countries, especially in Vietnam in recent years.

With the signing of a memorandum of understanding and a cooperative agreement on drowning prevention for Vietnamese children on this very special Sixth International Children's Day, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha wished to receive the support of organizations to raise knowledge and awareness among the community at all levels about the prevention of child drowning and to effectively implement anti-drowning network  for children; community-based interventions for children; skills for adults to monitor, protect, look after children better and children can protect themselves and their friends around.