Social Mobility through Sport | Up for Discussion with Splash

Nearly 50% of Hong Kong can’t swim. Which is why programmes like Splash are needed in our community. In this episode of CB Up for Discussion, we're excited to welcome Simon Holliday, co-founder of the Splash programme, and Daisy Luscaw, a senior swim coach who has transitioned from participant to leader. Splash is more than just a swimming initiative; it’s a transformative programme that empowers marginalized communities, particularly migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.

Through swimming, participants not only gain essential life skills but also build confidence, social connections, and a sense of belonging. Join us as Simon and Daisy share their personal journeys and the impact of Splash on mental well-being and social mobility.

We’ll discuss:

• The significance of swimming as a life skill and its implications for social mobility
• The holistic benefits of physical activity on mental health Inspiring success stories from participants who have found community and purpose through Splash
• This episode is a celebration of resilience, connection, and the ripple effects that come from creating inclusive spaces.

Tune in to discover how we can all contribute to a healthier, more supportive community!

[Introduction] (0:00 - 0:21) 

This is CB Up for Discussion, a podcast series from Community Business where we tackle DE&I and wellbeing hot topics with special guests from across Asia.  

[Emily Moss] 

Great, could you both introduce yourselves and tell us a little about how you got involved with Splash? 

[Simon Holliday] (0:21 - 0:31) 

Yeah, so my name is Simon Holliday, I'm one of the co-founders along with Libby Alexander of Splash, so we ran our first Splash program in March 2015. 

[Daisy Luscaw] (0:33 - 1:05) 

Hi Emily, I'm Daisy Luscaw from the Philippines, I first heard Splash from a friend in 2016 and since then I joined all the programs from Splash, so I learned to swim in Splash and after that I joined as a volunteer, I started as a coach and I took all the trainings from Splash and then now I get an opportunity to join the team, I am part of the team, I'm a senior swim coach of Splash. 

[Emily Moss] (1:05 - 1:29) 

Great. The key campaign for us at CB this year is social mobility and we're keen to explore it in as many facets as possible, so from both of your perspectives, what would you say the social mobility implications of taking part in Splash are for the wider community and how are you as an organisation leveraging them? 

[Simon Holliday] (1:29 - 2:58) 

Yeah, so I mean I'd answer that question by just going back to a Lloyd's registry report in 2019 that looked into swimming literacy around the world and what it found was that half the world's population can't swim, so three and a half billion people are unable to swim and there was a subsequent report that was drawing upon Amartya Sen's framework about swimming as a capability and what a capability means is essentially choices that we have about how we spend our time or what careers we pursue and social mobility is absolutely linked to capability and choices and I think the thing that we're most proud of is giving that choice of and that access to swimming because when you can swim that opens up a whole raft of other possibilities whether it be getting into a boat or a kayak or diving or future employment opportunities in terms of being a lifeguard or a swimming instructor and one of the projects that we've been developing over the last four or five years is our Splash graduate programs and so graduates like Daisy who have been through our program can then train to be coaches and that's now 25 percent of our coaching population are people who have been through the program and are developing those leadership skills as a result. 

[Daisy Luscaw] (2:59 - 3:10) 

Yes and also for the participants as soon as they learn how to swim they also learn how to teach others and so they teach their ward or their families back home. 

[Emily Moss] (3:11 - 3:41) 

Yeah so they're taking a skill that they're and bringing that to their communities as well. We at Community Business are key advocates for well-being and we know the holistic impact that physical activity can have on our mental and social health can you tell us a little about what positive outcomes you've seen for your Splash community in terms of well-being extending beyond physical health if possible? 

[Simon Holliday] (3:42 - 5:44) 

Yeah so I wanted to share an experience that I had as a coach which was teaching this woman who was probably in her late 50s a bit of being a migrant domestic worker here in Hong Kong and she was very very nervous when she when she started she was a tiny tiny lady and the first few weeks she really struggled but then around week six week seven something clicked and she was able to do things that she couldn't do before she was able to step into deep water she was able to float on her back but she still struggled with kind of basic freestyle and we have our assessments on week 12 for our adult program and she'd obviously I don't know something she'd figured it out and managed to swim the length of a pool 25 meters unassisted and when she touched the other side the look on her face and her manners and she was slapping the water I mean she was so happy with what she had achieved and we were all really happy for her as adults and I think as coaches and I think we've got so many of those kind of stories but what we've been able to do more recently is do an impact survey to see what specifically the well-being benefits of our program has been and a lot of it is about self-esteem and self-improvement but it's also about belonging and friendship and 50 percent of our participants stay in touch with each other after the program they're 86 percent of them say they're less lonely after splash 87 percent provide prioritize time for themselves so that there's all these residual effects that happen as a result of going through a program that is that is challenging but incredibly rewarding 

[Daisy Luscaw] (5:45 - 6:55) 

yeah also we start to teach parents and kids yeah so we see the the parents as they learn learn swimming and so with the kids and they have this common things that they really love to do and the connection between them is getting stronger and I have this every every time that the parents are teaching in this side and the kids are learning here and the mom is waving the child and like the kids are so excited like I'm gonna show off to my mom that kind of connection and it's so happy to see that every now and then and the mom is like because as a mom you're focusing into your job and to your two kids it's more likely they do that right like on their daily basis and then when as they enter splash they build up connections from other people they're their connections their network and friends and they have time to learn for themselves as well and build up stronger social connections to other people yeah I mean I as a volunteer for splash 

[Emily Moss] (6:55 - 7:29) 

that's the one memory I really have is the community so you're right intergenerational whether it's other actual mother to child or just older and younger participants it kind of once you're in there and you've got your rash vest on it doesn't really matter who you are at home everyone's a community everyone's having fun they're all excited they're all there to learn and I think and then everyone eating together afterwards or preparing food and enjoying oh did I did you hear I brought you this thing from last week do you remember you talked about it it's just just like a really it's a wholly positive positive experience I think which 

[Simon Holliday] (7:29 - 8:15) 

is kind of unusual often isn't it yeah and I think on the on the kids for the kids programs it is particularly important to get the parents more involved because we're we're not just looking for a change when they when they're learning to swim we want lifelong swimming we want them to be able to use swimming as a way of going to the happy place and reducing anxiety and stress and all these sorts of things so if you if you if the kids and the and their parents are learning in parallel then then they've got they've got a shared language they they talk to each other about about what they're going through so you build those bonds and those bonds and that activity continues after the program's finished yeah yeah exactly 

[Emily Moss] (8:15 - 9:00) 

only have that work yeah but actually um my husband and I are using that with our son now you know he's three years old we're trying to teach him to swim so um we've taken that with us I love the positive message and energy that SPLASH ignites in community that said we know that domestic workers as with many populations in Hong Kong can face stigma and discrimination can you speak to any of the more difficult issues that your participants are facing and have you seen any progress with tackling them both in a wider sense as well as as a direct result of the result of the work at SPLASH yeah I mean I think I think what we can say is the 

[Simon Holliday] (9:01 - 10:16) 

how we promote equality within our within our programs and when when a SPLASH participant starts we we have an introduction where we talk about history and what they can expect in the curriculum and one of the key messages is that we are all equal so what I'll say is that you know you might be wearing white t-shirts and I'm wearing a pink t-shirt but the only difference between us is that I can swim and I and I can teach you to swim and you are going to be learning but we're all on this journey together as coaches and and as and as participants and I don't want you to call me sir I don't want you to call the women coaches mom you can call us by our first names or if you want to call us coach you can call us coach as well that's what often happens but but it's it's important that we break down those those those kind of those kind of barriers and what we've what we've what we found is that swimming and the experience of swimming becomes the language that we that we that we share and and and socio-economic backgrounds and all those other factors don't become don't become an issue anymore it's about shared interests 

[Daisy Luscaw] (10:16 - 11:18) 

and commonalities rather than opinions yeah in my experience actually before I joined Splash I am very timid person and I don't really have so much friends but when since I I joined Splash and I know the importance of swimming and I get involved more in the in all the activities of Splash and all the works of Splash I realized that this is what I really want to do and then I built that connection to people that confidence to talk to speak up for myself and then I learned how to handle difficulties in my life in in the situations wherever I am but the help of Splash and people around me that's the positive the positivity of energy that I get there and I learned how to um face and switch my my reactions to certain difficulties that I'm facing every now and then 

[Emily Moss] (11:19 - 11:52) 

and I think the other thing that I noticed when I was volunteering at Splash is that if you have too much of a social barrier actually it can be unsafe right you need to feel people need to feel comfortable saying help I I feel I can't swim and so that you can run and help them and you know if there's any pre whatever as you walk into the pool it it doesn't create the environment to learn and help each other yeah so I think Splash has really nailed that because I certainly felt that I felt I hope people felt comfortable coming to me but also that I could 

[Simon Holliday] (11:52 - 12:33) 

you know help people as much as possible yeah well I mean you have to we're it's quite important for the coaches to be it's very important for the coaches to be assertive yeah and clear in their instructions and what we try to do with the curriculum is just break things down so it's simple we're conscious that we're um often uh working with people who are operating in the second language um for for example so it's all in English and that's and that can be quite challenging we try and use the same words um when we when we teach as well and we have to be you know we are it is a potentially dangerous environment so we have to be make sure that people are aware of the safeties it's safety issues and that they're looking out for their 

[Emily Moss] (12:33 - 12:54) 

fellow participants as well as the coaches yeah can you share any particular success stories or milestones that you've seen over the past few years both from an organizational standpoint as well as that of the individual participants and their achievements um yeah uh I would say um 

[Daisy Luscaw] (12:54 - 13:51) 

successful one is my story I personally yeah my story is um when I started in splash I can't really swim that well I can't go further away from the shoreline and then since I learned how to swim in splash I started to join swim race I did my first swim race in in Hong Kong and it's amazing experience because I did it with my friends that splashers as well and we did um longer distance like 1.5 some of my friends did like two two kilometers or three kilometers and since then um we start to join the rest of the races and we get that confidence and like enjoyment doing together and I build up more friends in that um community yeah that was pretty amazing experience being on the beach actually 

[Simon Holliday] (13:51 - 15:41) 

Libby and I were like proud parents just watching all the participants go off and that had a really big impact actually on how people saw splash and what these these um these women could it could achieve and these women and some men could could achieve um I think from a from a more kind of holistic point of view we've we've taught nearly 7 000 people now how to how to swim and that is it considering the three years of our history has been affected by COVID that's that's reasonably good although we feel like we can do a lot more we taught 3 000 people last year and we feel like we can we could do more year year on year so I think there's a scalability um thing that we've been able to achieve um the impact survey that I mentioned just seeing the impact that we're having so learning to swim is a is an output but what are the outcomes and and the impacts that we're having and we've been in we're seeing through that survey that there are huge well-being benefits there's huge self-esteem benefits um there's huge community benefits and that's coming out very very clear clearly from the um from the survey and then I think the other thing that that I'm very passionate about is the just the number of people that we've brought into leadership roles um both in terms of coaches but also in terms of what we call captains who are on deck support because they're providing administrative support so they're in the registrations but they're also supporting the swimmers through pastoral care and um and understanding they see things that we don't we don't we don't see about how people are showing up and whether they've missed a couple of weeks and checking in with them seeing if and seeing if they're okay so it's sort of mental health first in a way so just seeing um how uh these people have grown uh being in like being being in our 

[Emily Moss] (15:41 - 15:53) 

communities yeah and I mean I suppose in in itself it's providing opportunities for people to shine right which they maybe wouldn't have had elsewhere yeah in the water but out of the yeah and we're 

[Simon Holliday] (15:53 - 16:16) 

seeing those um we're seeing those things in our kids programs as well is that we're teaching some kids who are a little bit older so they're teenagers who eventually are moving we've got a few a few of them now who've moved into coaching roles and um and hopefully they will that will help them with employment you know if they decide to to do that as part of their career I got employed 

[Daisy Luscaw] (16:16 - 16:43) 

yes from from a learner and then I found the passion and I did my very best to to uh to try to develop the skills that I I've learned and now yeah I am a full-time full-time splash I never thought that I would be a leader but you are but you're you're absolutely 

[Emily Moss] (16:43 - 16:55) 

splash of a debt to me it's amazing yeah that's so that's so wonderful to hear and I suppose just for the context for people listening who maybe don't know about swimming two or three kilometers 

[Daisy Luscaw] (16:55 - 17:12) 

it's a very long way to swim it is yes yeah um yeah I think before I can only swim like five holding breath 10 meters yes that's it don't put me on longer than that 

[Emily Moss] (17:12 - 17:46) 

yeah I think my max even when I was swimming was about two kilometers that I've done so that's amazing splash foundation talks about your ripple effect um and that's something that actually twins very nicely with community business and we talk about what we try to have as a ripple effect in our community as well um through our work promoting inclusion so what would you say is the most important ripple of change that splash has sparked so so I I was talking before about 

[Simon Holliday] (17:46 - 19:51) 

scalability and about the number of people that we taught but we are really still scratching the surface if if you think that probably 70 or 80 percent of the migrant domestic worker population can't swim so that's um there's 400,000 migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong um there's probably a similar number of kids that are also unable to swim and there are other um beneficiary groups that we could potentially reach out to in the future um so there's there's millions of people in in in Hong Kong and in Asia that that are unable to swim now if you accept the notion that swimming is a capability that it's a life skill then why is this not a public health imperative why why are people not talking about swimming as a basic necessity and this is a paradox in a place like Hong Kong or in Singapore or other parts of Asia where we are island archipelagos we're surrounded by water in Hong Kong there are 722 kilometers of coastline there is an abundance of public swimming pools and yet 50 percent of the population still can't swim it is ridiculous and we cannot do this alone we we realize we realize that we need the support of the community we need the support of the government we need the support of um organizations to um to help us if we want to make this Hong Kong Asia's world swimming city we can absolutely do that there is too much focus on the elite level this is an olympic year i love the olympics like everyone else does but there is too much focus on the elite and not enough focus on the grassroots and if you want to ensure that that we have an elite in future we have more chabot and more use and camille chains then you have to invest in a basic level of swimming that's the only way that you can that you can do it so we're really passionate about that but we need we need the support of the community we're gonna if we're gonna push this message any further for me it's the the big 

[Daisy Luscaw] (19:51 - 20:29) 

impact personally is um the sense of belonging getting hope and uh finding your your your um your passion and take action with that and see yourself that your goal you reach your goal at the end i think that's that's the kind of the sense that i get from from splash i personally prove that and um yeah i think no i think that's great great well those are all our 

[Emily Moss] (20:29 - 20:43) 

questions thank you very much thank you very much for having us no problem at all thank you for listening to cb up for discussion for more information about our work across asia head to the community business website