Swim teacher wants more people from black communities in pools

Annalize Butler said she felt "like a black unicorn" when she came to the West Midlands and realised how few black people swam.

The Londoner began teaching lessons in Birmingham and Wolverhampton after getting a strong response to a post on social media in 2020.

"I met with people in the West Midlands who were like 'where have you been?'" she said.

She set up Black Owned Swim School and wants to teach in 100 pools.

Ms Butler has been teaching swimming since 2006 and since then has noticed she is one of just a few black swimming instructors around.

Statistics from a recent Sport England Active Lives survey suggest in England only 2% of regular swimmers are from black communities.

"It could be down to the fact that we are still dealing with our self image," Ms Butler said.

"Growing up in a school where it was seen as impossible I guess, not within the capacity for a black swimmer to be able to achieve things in swimming."

Annalize Butler runs Black Owned Swim School with Subira Dalila after she was taught to be an instructor through one of Ms Butler's classes

After 14 years of teaching swimming, she said she had decided to focus on her own community and posted the advert offering lessons aimed particularly at a black audience.

Dividing her time between London and the West Midlands, Ms Butler runs the swim school with the help of Subira Dalila, from Wolverhampton, who first contacted her about lessons for her children.

"I phoned up Annalize looking for a teaching instructor and she offered either tuition for my children or she offered the opportunity for me to become a swim teacher," Ms Dalila said.

She said it was important to her for her children to have a black instructor as "I feel that they learn better when somebody looks like them".

As well as getting more black adults and children swimming, Ms Butler said she wanted to prevent them from drowning.

Being part of an ethnic minority is associated with an increased risk of drowning, according to the World Health Organization.

Noe Ndlovu wants to spread awareness about water safety after one of her sons died while swimming

Among the people she has helped are Noe and her son Gugu Ndlovu, from Derby, after Gugu's brother Thandolwethu Ndlovu died while swimming in a river in July.

She taught Gugu some lifesaving skills and his mother said the instructor "was a godsend".

Mrs Ndlovu said the family were determined to improve water safety awareness with Ms Butler's support.

Building on her work so far through the swim school, Ms Butler said she wanted to offer more open water swimming teaching and train up more black tutors.

"I want to see this grow, I think now the reality is setting in. We have made a big impact and it is a lot of work," she said.

We are England: Swim School can be seen on BBC One in the Midlands on 14 March at 20:30 GMT and afterwards on iPlayer.