Alex scuba diver finally gets township children swimming
Alex professional scuba diver Lawrence Ruele has finally realised his dream to teach the township’s children how to swim so they don’t become victims of a swollen Jukskei River.
Lawrence Ruele’s long-held dream of teaching Alexandra’s children to become water-savvy and master swimmers to prevent drownings in the Jukskei River has finally been realised.
A scuba diver by profession, Ruele has always dreamed of establishing the Alex Youth Swim Academy as a catalyst to get the township’s children swimming. All this fell into place when King David High School Linksfield offered him the use of their pool over weekends to finally fulfil his dream.
Ruele partnered with Afrika Tikkun which enrolled 100 of their children in the programme together with 100 from the academy. The children are transported to King David Linksfield for swimming lessons.
“Once the first batch of 60 is considered qualified and confident enough in the water, we then take on a new batch and the cycle goes on and on. We are now in week eight of the start but under normal circumstances, it takes about 12 to 16 weeks to learn to swim,” said Ruele in an interview with Alex News.
Ruele said they now have a bunch of budding swimmers, some of whom he said were already showing signs of being the Penny Heyns of this world. As a result, Ruele said a swimming club, Alexandra Sea Lions had been formed to continue to nurture the budding swimmers.
Adam Perel, a 17-year-old King David Linksfield matric learner, volunteers to help keep the budding Alex swimmers busy with basketball, hula hoops, painting, soccer and skipping ropes before they venture into the pool.
Sibusiso Xulu of Aquatics Gauteng based in Pretoria said he was one of the core swimming instructors for the Alex children’s swimming lessons and when he was not involved with the Alex children, they visited schools to help teach water safety skills to the learners.
