"Once someone starts to drown, the outcome is often fatal. Unlike other injuries, survival is determined almost exclusively at the scene of the incident and depends on two highly variable factors: how quickly the person is removed from the water, and how swiftly proper resuscitation is performed. Prevention, therefore, is vital."
-- World Health Organization
A Global Problem
FACT: More than 300,000 people drown each year and drowning is a leading cause of accidental death of children worldwide.
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FACT: The overwhelming majority of drowning and near-drowning victims do not know how to swim.
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FACT: Participation in formal swimming lessons is associated with an 88% reduction in the risk of drowning in 1- to 4-year old children.
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FACT: 79% of children from families earning less than $50,000 per year tend to have low to no swimming ability and cannot afford the expense of basic swim equipment such as a swimsuit and a pair of goggles.
Our Solution
What began in 2011 as the dream of twin brothers Chris and Matt Hales that no child should be denied the opportunity to learn to swim because of their inability to afford a proper swim suit or a pair of goggles, Goggles for Guppies has grown to become the largest domestic and international distributor of free swim equipment.
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By offering tax incentives and developing strategic relationships with several key manufacturers and retailers to acquire their unsold inventories of new swimsuits, swim caps, and swim goggles and then distributing the equipment to qualified learn-to-swim programs for financially challenged, at-risk and special needs children, Goggles for Guppies has helped to remove the financial barriers for millions of poverty-level families to become safer in and around the water.
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Since 2011, we have delivered over $3 million worth of free swim equipment to qualified learn-to-swim programs for children in every state. We have also provided swim equipment to support our new friends at Swim Benin in Africa and Saving Waters in Uganda, Get Grenada Swimming, and humanitarian efforts in Guatemala and Haiti. Now we're working on our fourth million.