Worried about river accidents, Mosul resident offers swimming lessons in makeshift pool

Record ID: 1633901

  • Title: Worried about river accidents, Mosul resident offers swimming lessons in makeshift pool
  • Date: 26th August 2021
  • Summary: MOSUL, IRAQ (AUGUST 24, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOSUL RESIDENT TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO SWIM FOR FREE, MAHMOOD MUAFAQ, SAYING: "The ferry capsized. People died. I ran, myself, my people, my friends. We ran to the river. I also had a police force with me, they came with me. I was shocked by what I saw, it was terrifying."
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2021 15:55
  • Keywords: Drowning Iraq Mosul Old City Rubble Swimming lessons
  • Location: MOSUL, IRAQ
  • City: MOSUL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Living/Lifestyle,Middle East,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA003ERX36FP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Standing in the middle of a makeshift pool, Mosul resident Mahmood Muafaq tirelessly repeats swimming instructions to a group of young boys that throw themselves in the water at the rhythm of his whistle.
    Trying to raise his voice above the din of the boys' excited shouts and the sound of splashing water, Muafaq teaches them how to crawl, dive and to respect safety measures when in the water.
    Swimming has always been a hobby for Muafaq, the son of a professional swimmer. But the pool is more than a pastime, it is a self-declared mission for the man who in March 2019 tried to rescue some of the 90+ people who drowned after a ferry capsized in the nearby Tigris river.
    "I was shocked by what I saw, it was terrifying," Muafaq said, remembering the sheer amount of corpses, many of them women and children who did not know how to swim.
    In Mosul's Old City, still partly in ruins after the devastating war against the Islamic State in 2017, there are no swimming pools for children who in summer turn to the Tigris river to have some fun and cool down, Muafaq told Reuters.
    As children do not get swimming lessons at school, the river is a dangerous place for them, Muafaq said, adding that several children drown each year in the sometimes unpredictable river.
    To try and reduce the number of deadly accidents, Muafaq decided to build his own pool, renovating and transforming an abandoned tank in the Old City. Although it is surrounded by some debris and damaged buildings, the pool itself is taken care of by Muafaq who cleans it regularly and adds chlorine to the water.
    Since he built the pool, parents weary of letting their boys swim in the river have, with relief, let them join Muafaq's swimming classes.
    "We learnt how to swim, swimming is good for us, we learnt how to dive. Now, if we are somewhere and an accident happens, we know how to swim. Captain Mahmood taught us everything," Abdelrahman Ahmed, one of Muafaq's students, proudly said after a swimming lesson.
    (Production: Kawa Omar, Charlotte Bruneau)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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