This week, Carina Crawford, who grew up on the Isle of Man, will join a relay team attempting to swim the English Channel. They'll be swimming multiple hour-long stints through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, fighting jelly fish and hypothermia, wearing only a swimming costume and a pair of goggles in order to fundraise for Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), an organisation with close ties to the Isle of Man.
Carina says that this challenge especially appealed to her, ‘having lived next to the sea I have an affinity with it and yet I’m also in awe of its vastness - every time I enter the water I learn to embrace the unknown’. Carina adds ‘In the beginning, 9 months ago, I was barely able to finish a length of freestyle without the sensation of almost drowning. I have had to practically re-learn how to swim. We’ve had to muster all of our courage to swim in the challenging sea conditions that have remained at temperatures well below 15 degrees given the coldest winter and spring in decades this year in the UK. However, the motivation to dive in each time comes from remembering those we are supporting are facing much tougher challenges every day.’
The BraveHart challenge (as it is known) aims to raise funds for HART partners providing education to children affected by conflict in Sudan and South Sudan, and fighting child malnutrition on the isolated Atauro Island, which lies just off the coast of Timor Leste.
The Isle of Man Government International Development Committee has supported HART’s work in both these regions. In Sudan, they have provided funding for emergency food aid for families who are trapped on the border of Sudan and the recently independent South Sudan, where over 100,000 people have been displaced and agricultural land has been lost due to fighting between the Sudanese Government and rebel groups. In Timor Leste HIAM Health will receive funding to fight childhood malnutrition through HIAM Health’s centre, where children are treated and during their stay parents are educated in nutrition, as well as how to grow and prepare food. These newly learnt skills can then be passed on to others in their communities.
HART was founded by Baroness Cox to ‘serve forgotten people in forgotten lands’. Baroness Cox writes “We are profoundly grateful to the Isle of Man International Development Committee has awarded a 3-year grant for the visionary programme in Timor Leste – getting literally to the ‘roots’ of the problem of child malnutrition and also emergency response financial aid to provide desperately-needed food for people in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, dying of starvation as a result of constant aerial bombardment of civilians.”
Carina who has been a volunteer with HART is particularly keen to support their work as they really do reach those off the radar and is proud that the Isle of Man are supporting HART’s partners in these regions. Carina says the motto of HART, “I can’t do everything but I must not do nothing” inspired her to take on this challenge of swimming the Channel to raise funds for HART so they can continue to build on partnerships with these communities in order to bring about relief and long-term change in their circumstances.
To find out more about Carina’s swim visit www.swimforchange.com where you can meet the team, watch them train, sponsor Carina’s swim and find out how you can take up your own personal swimming challenge to support HART’s partners in forgotten places.
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