AVOHK swimmers swim 45km to raise funds for the Splash foundation
Here in Hong Kong, we enjoy having the longest coastline of any city in the world and an abundance of swimming pools. However, almost half of Hong Kongers and over 70% of foreign domestic workers do not know how to swim. Globally, swim illiteracy impacts women and low-income communities disproportionately, leaving 55% of the world’s population barred from the safety and wellbeing benefits of having fundamental swim skills.
On November 4th, teams of elite swimmers and business leaders will relay swim around Hong Kong Island to raise $2.5 million to address this chronic swimming illiteracy in the city. Participants of this event bring together the likes of Hong Kong Olympic swimmers Camille Cheng, educationalist and investor Philip Sohmen, and Andrew Waters, a swimmer member of the AVOHK and HK Masters swim championship competitor. Alongside the relay swimmers will be another AVOHK member, Ron Thompson who will be doing the swim solo as his original date was rescheduled to a typhoon in early October.
Funds raised will go to Splash Foundation, a local charity that has taught over 6000 children and adults from under-resourced communities to swim since 2015. Their programmes are free of cost to beneficiaries and focus on water comfort, safety and swim fundamentals. 90% of beneficiaries who start Splash programmes finish them and 81% can perform all assessment skills independently.
The marathon swim will start in the early morning hours of November 4th, going clockwise from Sandy Bay and is expected to take 11-13 hours to complete. The first four hours of the swim will be in the dark in an effort to avoid the busiest marine traffic and the swimmers will test their endurance as they take on the tides and potential jellyfish. Splash looks forward to building this iconic swim into an annual event.
Support Andrew’s team at https://www.give.asia/campaign/makewavespurple and Ron’s solo venture at https://give.asia/…/ron-thompson-swimming-hk360-for…
When more people know how to swim, the safer, stronger and healthier communities become.
