Swimming to save lives
The Midmar Mile is coming up this weekend and among the many thousands of participants from around the country, will be twenty swimmers who have pledged to swim 8 miles to raise awareness and funds (a minimum of R10,000) for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to provide and promote water safety and drowning prevention education for children and their families. Drowning is the biggest cause of unnatural deaths in children and the Foundation’s mission is to make a global impact on drowning statistics.
The Foundation collaborates with schools to implement water safety education and increase access to swim lessons. Another mission of the Foundation is “education through sport”. In 2015, the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation South Africa impacted over 40 000 children in KZN and Eden Park (Western Cape) and is hoping to reach 150 000 children in 2016.
One of the swimmers is ex National Triathlete, Dominique Donner Rodd who is the Project Manager for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation (their office is in Ballito, where they run all their local initiatives). Dominique is being sponsored by Hirsch’s Chief Operations Executive, Margaret Hirsch, who was once a competitive swimmer herself and feels strongly about helping children to learn to swim considering the number of drownings in the country. Said Dominique “Margaret has generously sponsored me R10 000 which will be used to fund an ongoing “learn-to-swim” programme during 2016 for children in the Shakashead community. 60 children are attending weekly classes at the Princess Charlene Pool in Ballito and the Foundation has recently acquired a bus to transport the children to and from the swimming pool. The Foundation also provides the children with lunch.
If you would like to know more about the Foundation and how you can help, contact Dominique on 032 946 5925.
