Collaboration: an Australasian experience

Collaboration: an Australasian experience

The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago of 7107 islands in Southeast Asia with an estimated population of 92,000,000 people. The World Health Organisation estimates child drowning in the region is 6,000 each year.

Australia by contrast has a massive coastline of 37000 kilometres with 11011 beaches and 85% of the population (21M) living within an hours drive of the coastline. Add to this demographics the inland water ways, backyard swimming pools and the effort involved in protecting the relatively small population (compared with the Philippines) from drowning and we have two partners with different challenges, though the goal is the exactly the same – drowning prevention.

The other significant difference is that Australia has a world renowned history in lifesaving, dating back to the 19th century with the establishment of the Royal Life Saving Society and the Philippines has a lifesaving organisation that is 4 years young.

Politicians and community leaders are often heard to utter that the solution can be resolved through a collaborative approach, especially when it requires development of funding initiatives with government, private agencies and the wider community.

In many applications it reflects the desire to encourage shared learning, knowledge and problem solving to achieve common goals between organisations. In this particular case there has been no specific grants or funding sponsors to support the work, it has come from the will of the people who represent both organisations and demonstrates what can be achieved through a shared objective.

This presentation will provide an insight to a collaborative approach that has been effectively operating for the last four years at an international level between volunteers of the Royal life Saving Society - Australia and the Philippine Life Saving Society working as equal partners to develop a strategy to address the critical drowning statistics impacting on this nation.

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