Symbolic move to launch swim program in Cronulla
Sixteen years after the infamous Cronulla race riots, a program to teach surf safety to men from diverse communities was launched at Cronulla beach.
Omar Mahmoud and Feroz Sattar formed Swim Brothers in 2019 after a group of men from a mosque in western Sydney embarked on a father-son camping weekend near Forester in which some of the groups were swept out to sea after wading into a rip. Luckily, two off-duty lifesavers saved them.
After hearing the story, Mr Mahmoud and Mr Sattar created Swim Brothers to help mitigate the significant cultural and linguistic barriers to learning beach and water safety in Australia.
On Sunday, members put two weeks of training at Auburn Pools into action as they hit North Cronulla beach to learn from Sutherland Shire Council lifeguards and Surf Life Saving NSW trainers.
“There’s so much symbolism behind why we chose Cronulla to launch this weekend; many of our participants had not returned to the shire since the riots in 2005,” Mr Sattar said.
“To have the head lifeguards come down, shake our members’ hands and teach them all about beach safety and how to spot a rip was really important not only for their surf literacy but an important demonstration they’re welcome to use the beach.”
According to the NSW 2020 Coastal Safety Report, men made up 88 per cent of people who drowned during the 2019/2020 season. Over the pat week, four men have drowned in NSW.
The Swim Brothers program has two main goals – to be the driving force of water safety for men and to create generational change in attitudes towards the beach in multicultural communities.
Surf Lifesaving NSW’s community education manager Mike Anderson said programs such as this were instrumental in avoiding drownings. He said men were over-represented in drowning statistics and the Swim Brothers program would “help bridge this gap”.
The program was inspired by the successful Swim Sisters group, which partnered with the Garie Surf Life Saving Club south of Sydney to assist women attain bronze medallions and become surf lifesavers.
Swim Brothers have proven especially successful with Islamic men, many of whom have long shied away from traditional learn-to-swim programs because they were not gender segregated.
“One of the barriers [for Muslim Australians] involves the separation of men and women when their being together is not required in a professional or emergency capacity. This has been the case in Islamic tradition as a way to preserve the modesty of the two sexes,” Swim Brothers participants Abdullah Syed said.
Mr syed said Muslim people often avoided the beach because it required socializing of women and men, creating poor swimming skills and inadequate knowledge of beach and surf safety in emergencies. “Swim Brothers recognizes these cultural sensitivities for migrants and Muslims and facilitates for these communities.” he said.
Written by Amelia Mcguire
