As you all may know, I am on a long personal journey to drop this extra weight I am carrying and as an extra incentive, I have chosen to challenge myself to swim a huge distance over the course of 31 days from 1st to 31st October.
During this time, I will be swimming 30,000 meters / 30 kilometers / 18.64 miles for charity. That's 1,364 lengths of my 22 meter apartment pool.
My chosen non-profit organization is Gulf for Good's Save a Smile Campaign. We invite you to donate virtual masks to help support orphaned children living at Larchfield Children’s Home. Each virtual mask is AED25.
Your donation supports these children as follows:
- AED25 donation (1 virtual mask) provides fresh milk and three square meals for 1 child for 1 day
- AED100 donation (4 virtual masks) provides school uniform for 1 child for 1 year
- AED250 donation (10 virtual masks) provides pencils, note books and other school stationary for 2 children for 1 school year
- AED500 donation (20 virtual masks) provides 5 large mosquito nets to go over 5 bunk beds protecting 10 children each night against Malaria
- AED1,000 donation (40 virtual masks) provides primary school education for 1 child for 1 academic year
To follow me on this journey, visit me on Instagram @thejourneytoskinnyskinner where I will update you with my training, fundraising and personal progress. I will also update here regularly.
If you have been following my journey so far and would like to support me and this great organization, please do give generously - all funds, whatever amount, are much needed and greatly appreciated.
Thank you as always for your support.
Claire x
ABOUT THE CHARITY:
Due to COVID-19, we cannot currently travel to Tanzania, the home of Mount Kilimanjaro however we remain committed to fundraising for our charity projects and to providing ways for you to keep in touch with us.
Funds raised through this campaign will provide on-going support for children living at Larchfield Children’s Home.
In 2011, as a response to the desperate plight of Tanzanian children who have been abandoned by parents – either by reason of disease and death, divorce or other incapacity to maintain the family unit, a group of Tanzanian private citizens decided to register a children’s home and to call it, “Larchfield”.
Their aim is to provide a happy, safe and secure home for homeless children, to foster an environment where each child can flourish and develop to his or her full potential regardless of race, sex, religion or other defining characteristics. They would like to promote self-reliance by encouraging life sustaining water resource management and agricultural programmes supporting a nourishing staple diet and organic supplements from arable and non–arable farming; and to provide a focus for cultural community projects and to offer profitable skills and employment within the community. Learn more about Larchfield Children’s Home here: https://www.larchfieldkids.org/
FUNDRAISING IN THE UAE:
This challenge is held in association with local not-for-profit Gulf for Good, whose purpose is to change the lives of underprivileged children around the world.
The breakdown of how donations are distributed are as follows:
- 75% of funds raised go to Larchfield Children’s Home
- 15% of funds raised go to Gulf for Good (not-for-profit in the UAE and registered UK charity) for their sustainability
- 10% of funds raised go to International Humanitarian City for their emergency response work
Learn more about Gulf for Good here: https://www.gulf4good.org
Here I am 2 days in to my charity swim for @gulfforgood and I’m reflecting on how I got to where I am.
At the age of 23, not able to swim more than 25 meters, overweight and hating the gym, I knew I needed something to get me moving. I tried different exercise classes and just couldn’t keep up, so I decided to build on my swimming. I didn’t have the best form, I actually still don’t, but I got in the water and challenged myself each time.
At first I started off at just 4 lengths, It’s all I could manage. But each time after that, I challenged myself to beat the previous length total by 4. I look back on my Facebook history now and can see how proud I was of myself at hitting 30 lengths, 40 and the 50.
I took a break from swimming for a few years, life got in the way. But at the age of 27 I decided to get back in the pool and make it more of a hobby. I started swimming every day, 30 to 60 minutes during the week and up to 2 hours on a Saturday and Sunday.
Up until I left the Uk I had taken part in 2 @swimathon_uk where over each weekend I’d swim 7.5km each and I’d really found a passion for the water.
During the 6 years I have lived in Dubai, I have wanted to get involved in some sort of charity swim, but all I could find were open water… NO CHANCE! Then I can across @yallagive, a platform which allows you to raise money for registered UAE charities, legally!
GAME CHANGER!!!
So, here I am today, ready to start this HUGE swim, a challenge I have set myself, to push myself and in the process raise money for and amazing campaign #SaveASmile.
For those that want to follow my journey, follow me on the IG @thejourneytoskinnyskinner. I will try and post as much as possible, but taking pictures of yourself swimming is rather difficult ?
Thank you again for all the support you have shown. The link for donations is in my IG bio. Every little helps and is greatly appreciated!
#reminiscing #charityswim #30000meters #charity #yallagive #gulfforgood #nonprofit #fundraising #donate #support #pleasedonate
#UpdateThere is no time anymore
Well done Claire!
Your effort is inspirational, Claire, huge well done!
Well done Claire! ?
Well done Claire, an amazing achievement :-) xx
So proud of you claire well done
Go Claire!
Bahati nzuri na ujasiri mkali!!!!
Congrats
Go Claire!
Good Luck Claire
Good Luck Claire, Love Dad and Gill xx
Good luck the Saunders family
Good Luck Claire, Love Mum xx
Good luck, Claire x
Good luck Claire xx
Go Claire! You'll smash it x
Good Luck Claire :) You will do great xx
Good Luck Claire!
Good Luck Claire! ?
Well done Claire, so proud of you and what a wonderful cause! You've got this girl ??♀️??♀️❤️ xx
Good luck luvvy xx
Go go go!! ?♀️
Good luck!
Proud of you best of luck, and for such a good cause