New stretch target
If we are to push past our initial target, extra funds will be used to purchase swimming related equipment, improve the sadili swimming facilities and train more swimming teachers!
We are raising money to establish a social enterprise swimming school in Nairobi, focused on promoting water safety throughout Kenya.
by Oliver Dowdall-Muhoho in Nairobi, , Kenya
If we are to push past our initial target, extra funds will be used to purchase swimming related equipment, improve the sadili swimming facilities and train more swimming teachers!
Who are we?
My name is Oliver Dowdall-Muhoho, and with my brother, Julian, we plan to swim across the Strait of Messina in the Mediterranean (from the island of Sicily to the mainland of Italy - a distance of just over 3km) to raise funds for Salama Swim School. We both have a background in swimming and my own journey with competitive swimming ended with my appearance at the World Junior Championships in 2015, representing Kenya. Since then I’ve never really left the swimming pool. Over the last year I've been working as a swimming instructor in the UK and I want to bring what I've learned back home to Kenya.
Salama Swim School is an initiative designed to address the deficit in access to swimming and water safety lessons in Kenya. 'Salama' is a Kiswahili word of Arabic origin that means 'peace' and/or 'safe'. We plan to personify these characteristics in our mission. The truth is that swimming lessons are available in Kenya, but they either come at a high cost, or low quality, and this means that a large number of Kenyans don't know how to swim. We aim to tackle this problem by training more swimming teachers and offering low cost, high quality swimming lessons that are focused on water safety, but we can’t do it without your support!
Why are we crowdfunding?
Recent protests in Kenya highlight the immediate priorities of the Government and their significant mismatch with the priorities of the Kenyan people. It’s safe to say that water safety is far down the list of priorities for the current Government of Kenya, but that doesn’t mean people in the country feel the same way. Kenya is a country with many bodies of water, the land in and around Nairobi is littered with little rivers; on the West coast we have Lake Victoria and on the East coast the Indian ocean. Despite the abundance of water bodies in Kenya, swimming is not on the public school curriculum, and added to this are the outdated stereotypes about who should and should not be swimming. This means an inordinate number of people in Kenya do not know how to swim, and our aim is to address this public health issue by training more swimming teachers and offering low cost high quality swimming lessons.
Swimming is the only lifesaving sport, and although many consider it to be a basic skill, the barriers to entry are high in the developing world. There are countless private schools and private members clubs with swimming pools in Nairobi and throughout Kenya, but as mentioned you have to pay if you want to play, and for many the cost is too high. As we've seen with the recent countrywide flooding in Kenya where we lost over 200 lives, drowning remains a major problem, and this is as much about water safety as it is about poor infrastructure planning. That's not to mention the hundreds of needless accidental drownings that occur each year in the country, without the excess rainfall. These numbers are climbing and the data surrounding them is severely lacking. We believe this is a public health emergency and we hope to bring these tragic numbers down by spreading awareness about the importance of water safety, and of course through swimming lessons. We’re going to begin by targeting Primary and Secondary Schools in Nairobi who don’t have swim programs to tackle the problem at the source, but we're also looking to the growing market of adults who never learnt to swim. To help spread the mission and solidify our efforts we plan to partner with local corporations, organisations and charities. Above all, we want more Kenyans to enjoy their time in and around the water, safely.
How we’ll spend the money raised?
In order to achieve our aim we need to complete a few objectives, the first being to train a team of up to four local swimming teachers (if you know anyone in Nairobi looking for a rewarding part-time job, please encourage them to apply by email through the poster below.) These swimming teachers will be the core of our project and we plan to offer additional teacher training courses in the new year to expand our reach.
Candidates on the course will be certified by the STA (Safety Training Awards) - one of the UK's two premier awarding bodies for swim teaching qualifications - as International Swimming Teachers.
Here is where we will first need financial assistance. The course in itself is not absurdly expensive but the materials required (resource manuals etc) begin to add up. Since we are planning to sponsor the candidates on the course, some of whom cannot afford to pay for the course and the necessary resources, we are asking for financial assistance. This will take up around 10% of the funding.
Thanks to the STA, I've recently become an International Tutor for Swimming Teaching and this means I'll be teaching the course with the skills I've learnt; this has brought the cost of the project down significantly as we don't have to pay for someone else to teach the candidates.
The majority of the money raised will be going towards the renovation of an existing pool in the Langata area of Nairobi, opposite the Kibera slum, one of the biggest informal settlements in Africa and home to over half a million people. We're partnering with Sadili Oval Sports Academy, a social enterprise that has a track record of using sports education to empower children to improve their health, reduce poverty and expand skill sets to broaden horizons.
"Sadili" comes from a Kiswahili term meaning, "well-being". The land on which Sadili was built, is itself reclaimed land from a former swamp/dump site, and it's now one of the few places children from the slum and the surrounding estates have to play sport and learn life skills. Unfortunately for many social enterprises in Kenya, funding is hard to come by and therefore facilities fall below the ideal standard. We are aiming to make renovations to the existing swimming pool that will ensure the aquatic environment is safe as can be, and this will come in the form of replacing cracked tiles and faulty equipment in the water management system. We are targeting a safe space, not state of the art. The kids' pool in particular has not been able to hold water for over a year and we want to change this for the little ones.
Lastly, we're asking for financial support to purchase the essential equipment needed to make the swimming lessons safe and enjoyable. Around 10% of the funding will be put towards this. Items will include floats, noodles, goggles, swimming platforms, and sinking and floating toys for the younger ones.
Join us in making a splash!
Sadili has already made a significant impact in Nairobi, providing sports access where there was none. We want to build on this legacy, and carry it forward. Swimming is a vital life skill and we want people, who have otherwise not had the opportunity, to be comfortable in and around the water. Sadili will be at the heart of this initiative and will provide a safe space for children and adults to improve their knowledge and skills in the water. If what happens at Sadili is a success, it will send forth a ripple of hope. It would be beyond our imaginations if this initiative could begin a national conversation around water safety, turning that ripple into a current that creates change! We are ready to be at the forefront of this conversation. We hope this will be the first step in a long journey, and we would love to expand to new geographic areas, and into new spaces in the pool, namely disability swimming. But one step at a time!
Thank you for being part of this journey. Let’s make waves together!
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Donate. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.