Swim2Africa

It’s early October in the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the world’s busiest waterways. Among the huge container ships passing through the strait that divides Europe from Africa, four human heads are bobbing up and down in the water. Among the heads are two swimmers, Michael Trepte from Dresden, Project Engineer at Landis+Gyr headquarters in Zug, and his friend Axel Hallbauer from Munich, who are following a dream.

According to their website “www.swim2africa.com”, the two friends from Germany believe that “following a dream, as crazy as it might sound, is the thing to do in life”. One of their dreams was to swim the distance between two continents and, on October 7th, they accomplished this vision. At the same time, they made sure their effort benefited not only themselves, but those less fortunate and in need of help and support. In this case, the Hands Across Africa Society, an organization dedicated to children and families in Africa by supporting grassroots initiatives that promote independent, sustainable communities.

[Pictured above:  The children from the orphanage in Sierra Leone thank Axel and Michael.]

A challenge to help children

In Tanzania, Hands Across Africa supports the Amani Children’s Home, a safe haven for abused street-children and AIDS orphans. In Sierra Leone, the beneficiaries are the Mustard Seed Orphanage and School as well as the Joe Mandarino Rehabilitation Clinic, which assists patients in a country still recovering from a gruesome civil war.

“We were sitting in the kitchen of our shared apartment in Dresden thinking about what could be the next challenge for us,” says Trepte, who has been active as a triathlete for more than ten years. “Somehow, we came up with the idea of swimming from one continent to another.”

Since their ambition wasn’t only to swim the approximate 17 kilometers from Spain to Morocco, but also to collect as significant monetary donations for Hands Across Africa, they thought of ways to involve the public. They decided on a creating a raffle that allowed participants to submit a guess on what their final swim time would be along with their donation. The winner received a 500 Euro prize for placing the guess closest to their actual swim time. As an added gesture of goodwill, the winner of the raffle decided to donate his prize back to the supported charity. Landis+Gyr, employees, and colleagues contributed financially to the cause. To date, they exceeded their goal and received more than 7,500 Euro for charity.

Feelings beyond words

After months of arduous training and preparation, the duo set off for Tarifa, Spain. “The weather is crucial and the wind and tides are the biggest risk factors. We had to wait for days in Tarifa and were afraid we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Trepte recalls. And what about the sharks? “The chances of being attacked by a shark are actually pretty slight, even though we did see some Orcas while we were in the water,” says the 30-year old engineer.

Accompanied by a safety boat and with an American and British swimmer, the friends from Germany accomplished what started many months earlier with a conversation in the kitchen. And they did so in the spectacular time of 3 hours and 50 minutes. “It’s hard to describe what I felt when we reached the shore in Morocco. It was a very special moment,” Trepte recalls and adds, “After receiving our first thank you notes and photos from the orphans in Sierra Leone we decided to keep our website swim2africa.com and our Facebook page still online for further donations. Our goal is to reach 10,000 Euros in donations. With Christmas ahead of us we will offer people a great chance to donate to a real good cause, knowing that 100% of their money will arrive in Africa and give maximum benefit to children in real need.”

Please visit www.swim2africa.com, and www.handsacrossafrica.org for more information about the swim and the charity.

[Pictured Below: The two friends, Axel and Michael, followed a dream.]