Finding Hope in ‘The Clothes They Wore’

The National Drowning Prevention Alliance has launched a new drowning prevention campaign created to draw attention to the random nature of child drowning incidents – the leading cause of death for children 1-to-4 years old – most of which happen when kids are not wearing a bathing suit.  

“The Clothes They Wore” is an anti-drowning campaign from the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA). A powerful initiative designed to highlight the importance of water safety, the message is rooted in the eye-opening statistic that in 70% of all child drownings, the victims are not wearing a swim suit.

This fact illustrates that child drownings happen when least expected, during times when kids are not engaged in swimming or playing in the pool.

Launched this month (July 2024) the campaign features the stories of five kids and their families who have suffered the nightmare of child drowning. In each case, the children perished when no one expected them to be by and certainly not in the water. Brief videos narrated by the victims’ parents describe the incidents and the regretful belief that had they been better informed about the constant risk drowning; they would have taken steps to better protect their children.

Images of the children’s wet clothing splayed on a pool deck used in the campaign are both haunting and sobering. The mothers’ accounts behind those images are plain-spoken and informative, betraying their torrents of devastating grief. The message is powerful, as it points to the fact that like nearly all people, children are instinctively drawn to the water, which sometimes leads to unthinkable tragedy.

The hope is that by raising awareness of these tragic circumstances, parents will take reasonable measures to ensure their children’s safety during times when they are not expected to be by the pool.

Layers of protection in the form of fences, covers, self-latching doors, alarms and other safety measures are all readily available for families with small children that live in homes with pools. Most effective of all, early childhood water-safety training and swimming lessons reduce the risk of a drowning or near-drowning incident by 88%.

Perhaps remembering “The Clothes They Wore” will prove an effective way to convey this life-saving message.

Learn more here.

Photo by diignat | Shutterstock