AUSTIN, Texas — The Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated is teaching black communities across the country how to swim.

In Austin, they've enlisted the help of Olympian, Cullen Jones to help keep them afloat.

On Jan. 14, 22 black women took a two hour crash course on the fundamentals of swimming from the Olympic swimmer.

The event is a part of a national initiative put in place by Sigma Gamma Rho and USA Olympic Swimming four years ago. They said the program is an effort to spread this life saving skill to more black communities.

“We want to target African Americans, chase away that fear and get folks in the water so that they can have a good time and enjoy swimming,” Lashonda Johnson, the southwest regional director for Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. said.

The sorority puts on swimming events every year during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. The sorority said the events are open to everybody willing to learn and they hope folks take that knowledge to teach someone else.