Background In Bangladesh, drowning is the silent killer of childhood mortality. The community crèche (Anchal) project is an effective intervention to prevent drowning and other risk factors for childhood injuries. The objective of the creche is to provide early childhood development stimulations (ECD) and parental supervision to prevent childhood drowning, which is common to happen during the day. As part of the childcare intervention, the project established 1600 centers in the Raiganj, Manohardi, and Sherpur sub-districts of Bangladesh. For child care development, the same number of community caregivers were trained for deployment, and capacity-building training was given for early childhood development and drowning prevention. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of ECD training programs as part of drowning prevention project activities.

Methodology A qualitative study was adopted to understand the impact of ECD training of the community Anchal caregivers on drowning prevention. 14 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with the trainers and eight focus group discussions (FGDs) with the Anchal caregivers were conducted. The study was conducted in three intervention sub-districts from July to October 2022.

Result Qualitative findings suggest that community childcare is the foundation for children’s psychological and cognitive development, which also has emerged as effective for keeping children in crèches during the day when drowning is more prevalent. Respondents from IDI shared that in the ECD training curriculum, crèche children are also oriented on drowning fatalities and the needs of swimming through rhymes, songs, storytelling, and role-play, which children are imitating and practicing even when they graduate from crèche. The young children are now more cautious, and fewer drowning incidents are being reported at the community level. Caregivers shared the same experience that children from crèches returning to their homes were unwilling to get to waterbodies unattended and they have learned a lot from their intensive training.

Conclusion The study explored how ECD-based drowning prevention activities contribute to child drowning prevention through regular child development activities and save children’s lives as well. Most importantly, a drowning prevention program based on ECD might be implemented and scaled up nationally.