AWSOM Project

When businesses back community programs, lives can change. The team at Vorgee has been helping us do exactly that for years.

They have supported AWSOM Project in so many ways since we started, standing beside us as we have worked to give more children access to swimming and water safety education 🛟.

Now, they have taken that support even further by sponsoring 20 children with disability in our Survive and Thrive Program 🙌.

These sponsorships will provide weekly swimming lessons throughout the next school year. For these children, this opportunity is truly life-changing and potentially life-saving.

Learning to swim is more than developing a skill. It builds confidence, creates opportunities and helps reduce the risk of drowning. Through the program, children also learn essential drowning prevention skills, water safety awareness and safe rescue strategies that can help keep themselves and others safe around water.

Thank you Vorgee, for your incredible support over so many years and for making this opportunity possible for 20 more children.

If you would like to help change a child’s future through swimming education, you can sponsor a child here: https://www.awsomproject.com/surviveandthrive

Our next Survive and Thrive Program kicks off soon, and every sponsorship helps us reach another child who needs it 🙏.

This National Volunteer Week, we are celebrating the people who make our work possible and reflecting on this year's theme: Your Year to Volunteer.

The theme recognises how giving your time and talents can spark joy, strengthen communities and inspire more people to become involved 💫.

As a proudly 100% volunteer-run charity, we see the impact of volunteering every day. Because every role across our organisation is supported by volunteers, every donation goes directly towards supporting our programs and the children we work with in Vietnam.

This week we especially recognise Ms Vo Thi Tuyet, Director of Operations Vietnam, who has been volunteering with us since the very beginning in 2012. For more than a decade, her dedication, leadership and tireless commitment have helped shape our work and create safer futures for children across Vietnam.

We also thank our co-founders, Bev and Nikki, who have generously volunteered their time, passion and leadership since day one to keep our charity growing and delivering impact.

Thank you to our volunteer committee members who guide and support our organisation, our volunteer teachers and lifeguards who give their expertise so generously, our incredible volunteer translators who work tirelessly with our team and never stop smiling, and our amazing swim teachers in Vietnam who work directly with children to build lifesaving skills and confidence in the water 🙏.

Volunteering creates connection. It builds stronger communities. It changes lives.

We are inspired by every person who has chosen to give their time to our mission. You are the heart of everything we do ❤️.

☎️ AWSOM Project is seeking 2 used, donated or refurbished iPhones (preferably iPhone 12 or later) to support drowning prevention operations in Vietnam.

If your workplace upgrades staff phones or has surplus devices, we would greatly appreciate an introduction.

The donated iPhones would be used to support AWSOM Project drowning prevention activities in Vietnam, including field communications, safety education delivery, photography and video documentation, translation support, and emergency contact capability for local teams and volunteers.

🙏🙏🙏

💫 A huge thank you to Liz and the Swimtikes Family Swim School team for their incredibly generous donation to AWSOM Project.

Support from members of the swim industry who understand the importance of swimming and water safety education means so much to our team 🙏.

As a volunteer-run charity, donations like this genuinely help us continue our drowning prevention work alongside communities in Vietnam.

Thank you for your support, generosity and belief in what we do 🙌.

We are so excited to announce that AWSOM Project also recently received Highly Commended in the Open Source Excellence Award category at the International Swim Schools Association Conference in Portugal.

This award recognises leaders and organisations that freely share knowledge, systems, and resources to strengthen swim education and water safety standards across the global community.

As a volunteer run drowning prevention charity working alongside communities in Vietnam, this recognition reflects what has always sat at the heart of AWSOM Project - collaboration, shared learning, and the belief that knowledge should be accessible, practical, and community focused.

Through tailored teacher education, professional development, mentoring, and the open exchange of experience and ideas, we remain committed to supporting safer futures for children and communities in Vietnam.

Thank you to our volunteers, supporters, Vietnamese partners, and the wider global aquatic industry for continuing to support and believe in this work.

We are proud to share that AWSOM Project has been awarded the Global Impact Citation at the International Swim Schools Association Awards last night in Portugal 🇵🇹.

This recognition is deeply meaningful to us. It reflects the collective effort of our entire volunteer team across Australia, the dedicated teachers in Vietnam, and the strength of our long standing partnerships built on genuine collaboration and ongoing exchange of knowledge and experience.

Co-founders Bev Christmass and Nikki McNamara are grateful and excited to share this recognition, which belongs to every volunteer who has contributed their time, expertise, and commitment over many years.

We particularly acknowledge our Vietnamese colleagues, and extend our sincere thanks to Ms Vo Thi Tuyet for her leadership, dedication, and ongoing commitment to reducing drowning in her community 🙌.

This award represents what can be achieved through partnership, consistency, and a shared commitment to improving access to swimming and water safety education where it is needed most.

Thank you to the International Swim Schools Association, and congratulations to all finalists doing important work around the world.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

We are so proud of you Nola! Nola is one of our legend volunteers who is part of our leadership team when we work in Vietnam. Always smiling, always helping and truly rocks 🙌

Another day of learning and collaboration here in Perth 🇦🇺.

Our scholarship teachers from Vietnam are continuing their time in the pool alongside the team at Beatty Park Leisure Centre. Each session is an opportunity to share knowledge, refine skills, and learn from one another through practical experience.

We also headed to Scarborough Beach and had lunch with a view 🌊 … followed by a walk along the sand talking about coastal safety in a real setting. It was a simple but valuable way to connect what we teach with what people experience every day at the beach.

This ongoing exchange is a core part of AWSOM Project’s work. Building knowledge, strengthening skills, and supporting our Vietnamese teachers contributes directly to the long term sustainability of the program in Vietnam.