≈236,000
people die from drowning every year worldwide
Drowning is among the 10 leading causes of death for children and young people aged 1–24.
Source: WHO Global Health Estimates
Little Lifesavers — A Worldwide Drowning-Prevention Movement
WHAT WOULDHAVE TO BE TRUE……for a child born anywhere in the worldto be protected from drowning?
ZERO PREVENTABLE DROWNINGS.
Little Lifesavers is building a global movement around one extraordinary goal: creating the education, skills, systems, partnerships, technology, and cultural change necessary to make every interaction with water safer.
Chapter 01 — The Problem
Drowning Is Global. Prevention Must Be Too..
3rd
leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide
Drowning accounts for 7% of all injury-related deaths globally.
Source: World Health Organization
~90%
of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries
The burden falls hardest where water is part of daily life, not recreation.
Source: World Health Organization
1–4 yrs
the age group with the highest drowning rates of any age
Young children can drown silently, in seconds, in only a few centimeters of water.
Source: WHO / CDC
4,000+
fatal unintentional drownings each year in the United States
An average of 11 drowning deaths per day, with thousands more emergency-department visits.
Source: CDC (2020–2022)
#1
cause of death for U.S. children ages 1–4 (after congenital anomalies)
More than car crashes. More than any illness. And almost entirely preventable.
Source: CDC
Behind every number is a person, a family, and a future.
What if we worked backward from ZERO?
Chapter 02 — The Zero Drowning Vision
OUR NORTH STAR: ZERO..
We didn't begin by asking what program we could create.
We began by asking: what outcome do we ultimately want?
The answer was simple.
ZERO PREVENTABLE
DROWNINGS.
Then we began working backward.
Little Lifesavers examines every point throughout a person's life where drowning prevention can occur — before they can walk, before they can swim, before school, before adolescence, before adulthood, and before they become parents themselves.
Working backward from the outcome
Chapter 03 — The Lifetime Prevention Journey
Every age is a chance to prevent..
Chapter 04 — The 10-Layer Zero Drowning Strategy
No single layer solves drowning..
Together, the layers create protection.
Chapter 05 — Our Approach
LISTEN FIRST. PARTNER SECOND. BUILD TOGETHER..
Little Lifesavers does not enter communities assuming it already knows their solution.
A child living beside an irrigation canal may face different risks than a child living near a swimming pool. A coastal community may face different risks than a flood-prone village.
So we start by listening — and we build with communities, not for them.
01
LISTEN
Understand the community.
02
IDENTIFY
Understand the drowning risks.
03
PARTNER
Find the people already creating value.
04
BUILD
Develop solutions together.
05
MEASURE
Determine what changed.
06
SHARE
Allow successful ideas to spread.
Chapter 06 — The Global Coalition
ZERO IS TOO BIG FOR ONE ORGANIZATION.
That's exactly why we need everyone.
Chapter 07 — The Multiplier Effect
WE ARE BUILDING FOR MULTIPLICATION, NOT ADDITION.
0
Instructor
0
Children
0
Instructors
0
CHILDREN
FamiliesCommunitiesCountriesGenerations
This is the Train-the-Trainer philosophy. The goal is not for Little Lifesavers to personally deliver every intervention — the goal is to build systems that allow communities to multiply prevention themselves.
Chapter 08 — The Zero Scoreboard
Measure what matters. Show it to everyone..
The ultimate outcome
PREVENTABLE DROWNING DEATHS
The world currently loses an estimated 236,000 people to drowning each year (WHO). Everything below is a leading indicator — the work that moves that number toward zero.
0
Children receiving water-safety education
children
0
Children demonstrating water competency
children
0
Caregivers educated
caregivers
0
Instructors trained
instructors
0
CPR / safe-rescue trainings completed
trainings
0
Life jackets distributed
life jackets
0
Safety resources distributed
resources
0
Water hazards made safer
hazards
0
Schools participating
schools
0
Communities participating
communities
0
Community partnerships
partnerships
0
Technologies deployed
technologies
0
Policies improved
policies
0
Countries participating
countries
0
Funds invested in prevention
USD
Leading indicators — live from the movement database
Figures begin at movement-launch baselines and are updated by administrators as programs deliver verified results. Filtering by World → Country → State/Province → Community is on the roadmap. Little Lifesavers never claims to have caused reductions in drowning deaths without credible evaluation data.
Chapter 09 — The Global Drowning Map
You cannot solve what you cannot see..
Verified dataPartial dataData missing Community
Select a country.
Then drill down — country to state or province to community. See verified statistics, hazards, partners, and identified gaps at every level. Where data is missing, we say so — because unmeasured risk is still risk.
Chapter 10 — Little Lifesavers Innovation Lab
What hasn't been invented yet that could prevent the next drowning?.
EngineersStudentsUniversitiesResearchersTechnology companiesInventorsDesignersEntrepreneurs
Areas of innovation
Detection
Wearables
Pool safety
Life jackets
Rescue equipment
Flood technology
Hazard mapping
Emergency communication
Data collection
Education technology
Chapter 11 — The Zero Drowning Knowledge Center
Every answer we can verify, in one place..
42 resources
Format
Prioritizing authoritative sources: WHO, CDC, national health agencies, universities, and peer-reviewed research. The library grows as the movement's research partners contribute.
Chapter 12 — For Families
PROTECTION STARTS BEFORE THE WATER..
You don't need to fear the water. You need to be ready for it.
Water-safety education
The layers of protection every family should know.
Age-specific resources
What protection looks like at 1, at 5, and at 15.
Supervision
What 'active supervision' actually means — and why it matters.
Life-jacket education
Choosing, fitting, and actually wearing the right jacket.
Pool safety
Barriers, alarms, and rules that make home water safer.
Open-water safety
Lakes, rivers, beaches — different water, different rules.
Boating safety
Life jackets on. Every person. Every boat. Every time.
CPR resources
Be the adult who knows what to do in the first minutes.
Find qualified instruction
How to evaluate swim programs and instructors near you.
Scholarship opportunities
Cost should never decide who learns to be safe in water.
A real voice from the movement
InstructorREAD MORE STORIES
I love being an instructor! Floating is essential to water safety!
Krystal Banks
North Platte Nebraska
Chapter 13 — Get Involved
WHAT PIECE OF THE PROBLEM CAN YOU HELP SOLVE?
Chapter 14 — Invest in Prevention
INVEST IN PREVENTION..
No guilt. No fear. Just a simple idea: prevention is one of the highest-leverage investments on earth. Your support may fund — and the Scoreboard will show what it built.
ScholarshipsEducationInstructor trainingLife jacketsCommunity programsResearchTechnologyDataPrevention infrastructureGlobal partnerships
We never claim a specific dollar amount "saves a life" — we show measurable outcomes instead. Little Lifesavers is not yet a registered nonprofit; tax-deductibility will be communicated only once verified organizational status is confirmed.
Chapter 15 — Building Toward Zero — Project Journal
Watch the movement grow, in the open..
milestonePHASE 22026-07
The movement opens its doors
This website launches as the public home of Little Lifesavers. The Zero Scoreboard starts at zero — and grows in the open, for everyone to watch.
strategyPHASE 12026-05
The 10-Layer Strategy takes shape
Working backward from zero: education, competency, supervision, life jackets, CPR & rescue, safer environments, technology, data, policy, culture. No single layer solves drowning — together they create protection.
researchPHASE 12026-03
Global listening begins
Mapping verified drowning data from WHO, CDC, UNICEF and national agencies. Rule one: every number on this site carries a visible source.
milestonePHASE 02026-01
The question that started everything
We didn't begin by asking what program we could create. We began by asking: what would have to be true for a child born anywhere in the world to be protected from drowning?
Current phase, research completed, partnerships developed, pilot projects, lessons learned, challenges, and upcoming milestones — documented as they happen. Transparency is part of the strategy.
ZERO IS NOT
A PROMISE.
ZERO IS OUR
DIRECTION.
One child.
One family.
One community.
One nation.
One generation at a time.
LITTLE LIFESAVERS
Making Every Splash Safer.
Our Mission: Prevention.
Our Movement: Worldwide.
Our North Star: ZERO.