“A child stands at the edge of a pool, having never been in water past their ankles, and jumps in for the first time,” smiles Nan Peacock. “It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. You can see the fear replaced by confidence in real time. They are so excited and so brave.”
It’s a small scene, repeated at swimming sessions across the country, but it sits at the centre of something much larger: a national effort to stop Thai children drowning, and a handover of leadership here in Chiang Mai. From 1st July, Nan and her husband Michael Peacock have taken over as project champions of the Child Water Safety & Drowning Prevention Programme (CWSDPP), Rotary’s community-based drowning prevention initiative in Northern Thailand, succeeding founder John Schorr, whose work over many years built the programme into what it is today. The Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC), which owns and oversees the project, has appointed the Peacocks to lead its fundraising, administration and day-to-day direction, with the club retaining ownership as they take over operations.
Drowning remains the leading cause of death for Thai children under 15 and the single biggest killer of those aged one to four. “Two Thai children still drown every day,” Nan says. “The gap between 560 deaths and the national goal of 290, or my personal goal of zero, is money and follow-up. Chiang Mai International Rotary Club is all about money and follow-up, and we are excited to take on this important work for another year.” The toll has fallen sharply since the early 2000s, when the country lost roughly 1,400 to 1,500 children a year, to around 560 today. Much of that gain traces to Thailand’s MERIT MAKER strategy, a Department of Disease Control and Ministry of Public Health programme launched in 2015 that has trained some 400,000 children in survival swimming and secured over 10,000 water sites through 2,177 community teams across 74 provinces.
Yet the national target is 290 deaths a year, and the curve has flattened well above it. The government’s own gap analysis points to why: communities are not sustaining the programme continuously once it arrives. “A team trains a village and leaves. Then the programme stops,” Nan says. “Rotary clubs do not leave. We live here.” Sustained, local, year-on-year delivery — exactly what a Rotary-backed community programme can offer — is what closes that gap.
Now in its second decade, CWSDPP is one of CMIRC’s longest-running and most significant initiatives, giving children who would not otherwise have access to formal swimming lessons the survival skills to stay safe in and around water. In 2025 the programme trained 391 fourth-grade students in Chiang Mai, 88% of whom passed the final swim-skills test, and reached 347 fourth-grade students across 19 elementary schools in Phrao, where 84% completed the final test.
Nan came to Rotary almost by accident, in a small American town where showing up was already appreciated. “If you could pull off a project, that was great,” she says. The pattern repeated in Thailand. “As soon as I got in, they asked me to get into this swim thing.” She did not need much convincing. Her connection to drowning prevention goes back to a childhood barbecue, when her younger brother, now in his mid-thirties, was found blue at the bottom of a pool. He survived, but the memory stayed with her. She had been a competitive swimmer herself; the adults around her had simply assumed her brother could swim too. “The adults in the scene forgot that you have to learn how to swim,” she says. “We learned quickly.” Drowning, she adds, rarely looks like the drama people expect. “It is a very quiet sinking to the bottom. If you don’t look carefully into the water, you are not going to see it.” In Northern Thailand, the danger is rarely a swimming pool at all, but the rivers, canals, dug ponds and reservoirs of ordinary rural life.
CWSDPP delivers survival swimming instruction, community CPR training, caregiver supervision education, water-source hazard mitigation and the Shout–Throw–Reach bystander rescue protocol. Classes are taught by qualified, experienced Thai swimming instructors — local residents who live near the children they teach and work in fluent Thai, building the trust and rapport that make the lessons effective. Michael is clear about where the Peacocks’ role begins and ends. “We do not teach the classes,” he says. “We fund a programme that works — skilled instructors, a proven method, real results. Donations keep it running.” In Chiang Mai this runs through a partner facility with, Nan says, “fantastically well skilled instructors,” including training for children with special needs. In Phrao, the programme is delivered by the Warm Heart Foundation, the grassroots community-development organisation that has served the rural district since 2008, alongside survival-swim instruction under Kru Payu.
Funding remains the central challenge. “Bloomberg has given over 100 million dollars to stop drowning — in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and more,” Nan says. “Thailand gets none of it. Thailand paid its own way. We raise our funds ourselves.” Support comes from Safe Child Thailand, Australian Aid, the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai Wattana and the Rotary Club of Seattle Foundation as major donor. This year’s total budget is around one million baht, spent, Nan says, “very parsimoniously” — swimsuits reused rather than replaced, every saved baht another child taught. “The WHO says every baht spent on drowning prevention saves about nine,” she adds.
Teaching begins in fourth grade, old enough for children to follow instruction safely, before girls reach an age where periods become a barrier to entering the pool. Younger children, whose risk comes more from supervision gaps than swimming ability, get water introduction rather than full instruction — going further would mean, Nan says, “significantly more funding” than the programme currently has.
Priorities ahead include expansion into new provinces. “Chiang Rai is next,” Nan says. “Lampang had a programme, and we want to restart it. We bring funding. The programme must belong to the local Thai-speaking clubs.” Michael says the outreach will happen face to face. “We will go meet the club presidents in person,” he says. “If your club has water and children nearby, we want to talk.” The pair are also pursuing wider institutional backing: “We are applying for a Rotary Global Grant in 2026-27,” Nan says. “Every Thai club that joins makes it stronger.”
CMIRC, chartered in 2014, is dedicated to child safety, health and education through service projects across Northern Thailand. Nan sees the club itself as part of the pitch to newcomers. “There are seventeen Rotary clubs in Chiang Mai. Only ours meets in English,” she says. “If you are a foreigner and want to do something real for this community, join us. You do not need Thai. You do not need to swim.”
For Nan, though, the case is not really about statistics. It is the kids at the pool edge, jumping in for the first time. “It is so wonderful to see,” she says. “It is rewarding.”
