On the 26th August, The Gaza Swimming Carnival shall be celebrated on the beaches of Gaza. On the same day, people at more than two dozen locations all over the world will be taking part in a swim in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Local groups from London to Florida to Kuala Lumpur to Cape Town will be taking part. The event will be live streamed to Facebook and YouTube so it can be watched anywhere the world. The finale will be the beautiful sight of a thousand Gaza children, who learned to swim this year, streaming into the sea. We have a fundraising goal of 5,000 US dollars to fund swimming lessons for 100 children in Gaza.
The Festival has consistently been a day of fun and happiness at the beach for the children of Gaza, and we will join them in their joy.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, millions of people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank “struggle to live in dignity under Israeli occupation.” With the academic journal Frontiers in Psychiatry finding 90% of children and adolescents in the Gaza Strip have experienced trauma, our campaign focuses on children in Gaza hoping to learn how to swim.
The solidarity swim has three aims. First, to send solidarity to the people of Gaza from around the world. Secondly, to raise funds for swimming lessons for Palestinian children. And thirdly, to raise awareness for the struggle of Palestinians in Gaza to live a normal life within our local community.
Chair of Swim With Gaza, Paul O’Brien Says: “Often people in Gaza feel isolated and forgotten in the hard lives they live. In swimming together, supporters of the people of Gaza hope to show them there are people across the world who care and are thinking about them.”
One world, one sea, one Gaza