Together with Royal Life Saving Australia, Royal Life Saving NSW is honoured to share good news from Multicultural NSW - we won the Community Campaign of the Year award with our focus on drowning prevention and water safety education in multicultural communities.

The NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Awards (PMCAs) recognise excellence in the multicultural media and marketing industry and acknowledge innovative and creative campaigns that inspire social cohesion and community harmony.

Working in partnership with community leaders, our NSW Easter Holidays Water Safety Campaign focused on providing culturally relevant, simple and effective messaging for our multicultural communities. The campaign was produced in Simplified Chinese, Nepalese and Arabic to reduce language and cultural barriers. These language groups also align with emerging drowning statistics which demonstrate the most vulnerable groups across NSW.

Royal Life Saving NSW Chief Executive Officer Michael Ilinsky said it's a great achievement from the team and community members involved in the project.

"The award recognises the hard work and collaboration from different parts of the organisation and our local community groups. The positive outcomes from the campaign are a real testament to our goal: the delivery of water safety education for all, in a culturally appropriate and easy to understand way," Mr. Ilinsky said.

The positive feedback we received continued to support the evolution of the campaign as resources were shared across the community. Royal Life Saving is committed to further advancing and evolving our work and partnerships with multicultural communities to identify and close gaps in resources and support around water safety education and drowning prevention initiatives.

“I can see community members still sharing videos on Facebook and Twitter. Many thanks for this opportunity and always feel free to include me in future campaigns. Also, NAA received plenty of requests from local community members to organise swimming sessions for adults.” Rishi Acharya, Founder - Nepalese Australian Association (NAA)

“It was great working with the Royal Lifesaving staff and seeing their commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive campaign. I enjoyed learning about Royal lifesaving and what they are doing to support multicultural communities. This water safety information is really reaching the community and I am happy that it is - Chidubem David Gbuzue – Nigerian Community member”

A huge thank you and congratulations to the community groups involved in contributing to the success of the campaign:

Advance Diversity Services

Nepalese Australian Association (NAA)

Swim Sisters

NSW CALD Water Safety Network

South East Sydney CALD Water Safety Committee

Western Sydney/South West Sydney Water Safety Committee

Key Nigerian community members

Please visit our website Multicultural Water Safety | Royal Life Saving (drowningprevention.org.au) for further resources and details about our current community programs.