Lombok & Sumbawa
Buffalo Pond operates through a social enterprise model meaning that every private lesson, mindset session or workshop we charge for then supports our scholarship programs for children and families in our community. It's a simple structure with a deliberate consequence: the more people who learn with us, the more people we can teach for free.
We run community programs across Lombok and Sumbawa, working through schools, community partnerships and local supporters who help us identify where the need sits. Because we operate as a decentralised project rather than out of a single fixed pool, we can bring lessons to the places that need them instead of asking families to find transport, time and money to come to us. That flexibility is what lets us reach coastal villages, inland communities and schools that sit well outside the usual reach of swim programs. It also lets us travel further afield, including visits to Sumbawa.
What we teach in these sessions is shaped by the environment each group actually lives in. Below we’ve outlined a few examples of our community programs.
One of the community programs we run in Lombok is in collaboration with Saifana Organic Farm and the children connected to Tanah Inaq. Here, we bring our swimming and water safety program directly to the community through multiple outreach days, working with children as well as adults who already have swimming experience.
The children take part in structured swimming lessons designed around building water confidence, swimming ability and practical water safety skills. Alongside the lessons, we work with adults in the community who already know how to swim and teach them how to teach others safely. They learn the foundations of beginner instruction, how to structure a lesson, how to support children through different stages of learning and how to approach water safety from a teaching perspective.
This is an important part of how we think about community programs at Buffalo Pond. We don’t want our impact to depend entirely on our instructors being physically present. By building the knowledge and confidence of people within the community, we can create local capacity that remains after our outreach days are over.
The model is simple: we teach the children, train the adults, and gradually build the ability for the community to continue teaching itself. This makes each outreach program more than a series of free swimming lessons. It becomes an opportunity to build skills, knowledge and ownership that can continue growing locally.
Our work with Saifana and Tanah Inaq is therefore part of a wider goal to make water safety education more accessible while developing sustainable, community-led ways of delivering it. This same approach is reflected in our other partnerships, where we combine direct lessons with instructor training and local capacity building rather than relying on short-term external involvement.
West Sumbawa:
Our collaboration with Living On Air and Laskar Cinta Alam in Kertasari, West Sumbawa, focuses on helping children build confidence and practical safety skills in the ocean. Kertasari is a coastal community where the water is part of everyday life, and for many of the children, the ocean is also a place for play, exploration and activities such as surfing and diving.
Through this program, Buffalo Pond brings structured swimming and ocean safety education directly into the community through swimming lessons, school visits, delivering Buffalo Pond Books and community engagement. We work with the children through multiple sessions, building their swimming ability, water confidence and understanding of how to move safely in and around the sea. The aim is not simply to teach children how to swim in a pool, but to help them understand the environment they actually live in.
The program also connects with the wider water community in Kertasari. By working alongside Living On Air, Laskar Cinta Alam and local water and surf communities, we can build on the activities that are already happening in the area rather than creating something separate from them. Our goal is to strengthen the safety knowledge around those activities and create more opportunities for children to participate confidently.
The long-term goal is to build a community where more children can confidently enjoy the water around them, while having the swimming skills, ocean awareness and safety knowledge to do so responsibly. This follows the wider Buffalo Pond approach of combining direct community lessons with local partnerships and capacity building so that impact can continue beyond our own sessions.
Alongside our outreach projects, Buffalo Pond runs 10-week community swimming programs designed to give children the time, consistency and support they need to genuinely learn how to swim. Rather than offering a single swimming session, children commit to a 10-week program where they return each week and progress through their skills over time.
These programs are usually organised together with schools and local community partners. A partner might connect us with a community that would benefit from the program, provide access to a pool, help with funding, or support the organisation and logistics of the sessions. This allows us to bring a structured swimming program to children who may otherwise have very limited access to regular swimming lessons.
The focus is primarily on the children. Over the ten weeks, instructors work with them progressively, building water confidence, swimming ability, safety awareness and independence in the water. The repeated sessions are important because learning to swim is not something that happens in one afternoon. Children need time to become comfortable in the water, practise new skills, make mistakes, try again and gradually build confidence.
The 10-week program concludes with a graduation and award ceremony to celebrate the learning and commitment of the group.
