Record Barbados to St. Lucia charity swim
Cameron Bellamy in the record-breaking swim from Barbados to St. Lucia.
https://ubunyechallenge.com
OVER 500 VEHICLES TO CHOOSE FROM
OF CERTIFIED
PRE-OWNED NISSANS
WE SELL & SERVICE ANY BRAND, MAKE & MODEL
3 PRE-OWNED INDOOR SHOWROOMS
Caribbean Life, Sept. 27 - Oct.3, 2019 51
By George Alleyne
Who needs a plane or a boat
to travel from one Caribbean
territory to another when you
could simply swim it?
That must have been the
question in the head of South
African, Cameron Bellamy,
last Friday as he stood on the
beach in St Peter’s Bay, Barbados,
looking west at St Lucia,
then wading into the water and
swimming the 94 miles beachto
beach distance from one
beautiful island to the other in
56 hours and 36 minutes.
The endurance athlete who
performs stunts to raise money
for Ubunye Foundation charity
projects dipped his toes
into Barbados’ water at 8:20 in
the morning and reached St.
Lucia’s Vieux Fort just before 5
pm Sunday.
The feat is unofficially the
longest recorded channel swim
between countries, bettering
the 77.3 miles done by Chloe
McCardel five years ago swimming
between the south of
Eleuthera Island to Nassau in
the Bahamas.
McCardel’s water feat continues
to hold the record at the
Marathon Swimmers Federation
while that organisation formally
verifies Bellamy’s swim.
Just last November Bellamy
became the first person to complete
what was described as a
‘highly complex swim’ around
Barbados. His unprecedented
swim lasted 41 hours.
Bellamy founded the Ubunye
Foundation and Challenge in
2011 to focus primarily on the
provision of early childhood
education in poor and isolated
areas in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
According to the Foundation,
it “has assisted in creating
16 new early childhood
development sites in the rural
Eastern Cape of South Africa.
These sites now teach 350 children
on a daily basis. Ubunye is
currently fundraising to supply
these 16 sites with access
to the internet to assist with
technology and computerized
learning”.
“In Zimbabwe, the Ubunye
Challenge has constructed
classroom blocks at Mapere Primary
School, a severely overpopulated
school in the disadvantaged
area of Concession
and is currently funding a very
ambitious project to build the
first A-level school, Mwenje
Secondary School, in the same
area. This year Mwenje enrolled
100 students in forms one and
two. Ubunye has recently fundraised
the amount needed for
the construction of the third
and fourth form classroom
blocks which will enrol students
in early 2020.”
Some of the funds raised
from Bellamy’s record-breaking
swim over the weekend will to
Barbados’ Albert Cecil Graham
Development Centre, which
caters to physically and mentally
challenged students.
Another portion of the money
will go to the international
organisation ‘United Through
Sport’ that has operations in St.
Lucia “running programmes
geared toward mass youth participation
in sport. While using
sport as a vehicle to tackle the
most prevalent of social issues
across the country.”
BAY RIDGE NISSAN
APR** 96 mo. 120,000 mi. Warranty* 0.9%
5THAve and 65TH St, Brooklyn, NY | 1-877-254-3280 | BayRidgeNissan.com
SALES AND SERVICE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK | Showroom Hours: Mon to Thurs: 9am - 9pm | Fri: 9am - 6pm | Sat: 9am - 6pm | Sun: 12pm - 5pm
Price includes all costs except tax, tags, DMV fees. *Must present ad upon entering dealership. **Low fi nancing available with Primary Lender approval. Up
to 36 months. Must present ad upon entering dealership. Used cars sold cosmetically as is. See dealer for complete details. Expires 3 days after publication.
DMV#7076824, NYC DCA Lic. #698282
+ PLUS
DWAYNE DAVID
Call and one of our
sales associates will
answer your questions.
/ubunyechallenge.com
/ubunyechallenge.com
/BayRidgeNissan.com