A kind teacher in Johannesburg has made a splash with a heartwarming initiative to teach more Jozi youngsters an imperative life skill: learning how to swim!
Johannesburg, South Africa (16 August 2024) — Whether you were thrown into the deep end and told to move your arms and legs like your life depended on it (it did) or learnt how to face intimidating waters armed with gentle floaties, you’re probably glad that you know how to swim. But, the reality for many South African young people is that swimming skills are a foreign concept; often due to the fact that many don’t have access to the resources to learn how to navigate waters. Enter teacher Rene Donenberg and her initiative to teach more Jozi youngsters the essential skill.
As a teacher at Johannesburg Girls’ Preparatory School in Berea, Rene has seen firsthand how many Jozi youngsters actually dream of taking to a pool. More importantly, it’s something she believes all children should learn.
“I strongly believe that children need to learn the life skill of swimming,” says Rene. Her initiative, ‘Swim Smart Kids: Empowering Kids with Water Safety” is something she dubs a passion project.
However, the caveat of the initiative is that the school pool is notoriously “unswimmable”. As the oldest school in Johannesburg, Johannesburg Girls Prep’s pool has battle scars. But it also stands as a space of hope as the only swimming pool in the inner city area.
For Rene, the initiative is also about giving back to the school that has guided generations of South African women.
“We have over 1,100 girls attending the school daily. Many of our moms came here—mine did and so did my husbands. Most of our parents are unable to pay our school fees and we were without electricity for almost a year…We have very limited resources but we do the best we can with what we have.”
Rene adds that they feed almost 1,000 of the 1,100 kids every day; ensuring that the girls get a hot meal—oftentimes their only meal of the day.
Rene is reaching out to the larger Johannesburg and South African community to help repair the school pool and kickstart the Swim Smart Kids initiative. By teaching more Jozi youngsters how to swim, not only could tragedies like drowning become less frequent, but South Africa might just find its next Outside Lane star swimming squad members, all thanks to one woman who decided to make a splash of positive impact.
You can support the crowdfunding campaign here.
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