Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chezik Tsunoda. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chezik, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

No More Under is a nonprofit organization that I founded 5 years ago that focuses on water safety and equity in aquatics. I started the organization after my son, Yori, drowned in a backyard pool. Once I took a deeper dive into the research, I realized the many barriers preventing children from learning to swim. Cultural barriers, financial barriers, and informational barriers are just a few things keeping children out of the water. Our organization makes sure that children who are drowning at the highest rates are able to receive free swim lessons. Black and brown children are 4 to 5 times more likely to drown and families making under $50,000 salary a year have little to no swimming ability. (CDC) It’s incredibly critical to bring light to this fact, especially since drowning is the #1 reason children 1-4 die and #2 for children 5-14. We are providing access and making sure that future generations understand the importance of water safety and swimming lessons.

In addition, Visually Inspired Productions is a company I founded that focuses on projects amplifying the voices of the most overlooked and dismissed communities. We believe listening to these voices is vital to understanding the world we live in and creating a path towards the world we hope to build. We released Drowning in Silence in 2023, which is a documentary about my journey after my son drowned. Our current project, My Neighbor’s Keeper, focuses on the unhoused and recently housed population in Seattle, WA.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was able to learn the ropes of production working at various television stations like BET, MTV, HBO, and VH1, while simultaneously working on various music video and commercial sets. After working in television for 10 years, I started working in the commercial space as a producer. Once I started having children, I loved it and ended up having 4 boys in 5.5 years! Needless to say, I became a stay at home mom as there was so much to juggle.

In 2018 my third son, Yori, drowned in a backyard pool. This was incredibly devastating to me and my whole family. A year after his death I was able to start a nonprofit organization called No More Under, which is dedicated to saving lives through water safety education, legislation, and advocating for equity in aquatics. As I started NMU, I also started filming Drowning in Silence. This was an incredibly healing processes connecting with other families with similar stories and experts on how to make a shift in society around water safety. This was also a reminder to me about how much I love production!

I was able to travel the country, first, to interview families and then again to screen the film and raise awareness. The film can be found on AppleTV and AmazonPrime.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My journey has truly been one of turning pain into purpose. The grief and guilt that I felt for many years after my son’s death could have crippled me. Honestly, in moments I did feel paralyzed, however I knew that I had to be strong for my children that were here and understood that I have a larger purpose. Keeping Yori’s name alive and sharing his story has helped me shine a light on this silent epidemic to make sure that this preventable tragedy does not happen to others. I feel incredibly grateful that I had the production background and marketing skills to make and market my film about my journey when the time came.

Making a film about my experience reminded me of my love of production and I have since started making another feature documentary film. I understand that so much is in our mindset and finding things to be grateful for and to lean into can really give you purpose. I know that I’m supposed to tell stories to help people not feel so alone on their journey. Also, to help others understand and have empathy for what someone else might be going through.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson that I am unlearning is that sometimes even when you’re doing good for others, it can cause harm to you. I was at a screening of my film at the Rosebowl Aquatic Center when a man came up to share his story of losing his brother. He told me they lost their mother in that moment as well because she was so consumed with his brother’s death.

The emotional toll of this work was something that I was starting to put together for myself as I realized doing some activities with No More Under were triggering. At times, I would become incredibly emotional when I should be celebrating our greatest successes. I also understand that working in the space in which my son died is a daily reminder not only myself, but also to my children. I am continuing to learn how to balance and set boundaries around my work to make sure that I protect my heart and protect my children. I am incredibly passionate about the issue of childhood drowning, but also want to make sure I remain passionate about living life in the present moment and appreciating all of my children.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nomoreunder.org // www.visuallyinspiredproductions.com
• Instagram: @nomoreunder //@visuallyinspiredproductions// @cheziktsu
• Facebook: nomoreunder
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/no-more-under // www.linkedin.com/in/chezik
• Youtube: @wearevisuallyinspired

Image Credits

Angela Carlyle
Sasha Reiko
Tim Gbunblee