Swim in 1 Day(SID)
EMPOWERING AFRICA THROUGH SWIMMING & SPREADING AWARENESS!
Dedicated to promoting and teaching swimming to black Africans in the fastest possible manner, to eradicate the black drowning pandemic and close the incredible gap of racial disparities in fatal drowning rates involving blacks that is evident through worldwide statistical data and studies. The Swim in 1 Day SID Africa is a Non-Discriminatory, Non-Religious, Non-Political and Non-Profit Organization that welcomes all and is at the service of the most vulnerable in every community it finds itself.
Our Motto: “Better Safe, than Sorry“, basically explains the need for our fight to change our often reactive African societies to convert from reactive to Proactive societies. The key to achieving this in a constantly changing climate emergency situation that we find ourselves in, would be empowerment through swimming (that represents Preparedness) and spreading climate and disability awareness, by working towards more inclusive societies. A more egalitarian society, where justice and fairness abound and are available for all would be the outcome of the SID empowerment, sensitization and collaborative scheme.
The Swim in 1 Day Story
The Swim in 1 Day SID Africa is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) registered officially in Spain as “Swim in 1 Day Africa Initiative” and in Nigeria as “Swim in 1 Day Charity Initiative” in the year 2022.
In March 2023, SID activated the 1st phase of the SID Action Plan, which involved a massive media campaign, creating awareness about our mission, vision & objectives. This was SID’s medium for empowering the people with educational knowledge, featuring on both International – BBC & National TV stations – Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) 2 times, DSTV 369, GOTV 114, STARTIMES 104, Lagos State Television (LTV) 3times, ARISE NEWS TV, CHANNELS TV, Silverbird TV, Startimes Channel 109.
National Radio stations – 98.3FM 2 times, 93.7FM, 94.1FM, 95.1FM, 99.3FM, 105.5FM.
And National Newspapers – News Agency of Nigeria (Sundiata Post), Guardian, Independent, Business Day, The Punch.
Telling and showing the world and Nigeria, what SID is all about was the aim of the 1st phase and we can proudly say that we realized this objective beyond expectation. Here are some of our 2023, 1st year out, accomplishments:
While in 2022 we did not register any of the many students who were beneficiaries of our SID Scholarships, we have documented over 150 students who benefited from the SID Project in 2023.
We started our School SID Campaigns with about 5 Primary, 2 Secondary and 1 Special Needs Kid’s School for the (Blind) visually impaired along with an NGO called the Irede Foundation that caters to providing artificial limbs for amputee Kids. These collaborations nurtured the idea of the first-ever special inclusive Swimming training program called (SNIF) Secure Naija’s Future by SID.
The First season of SNIF gave birth to a 14-year-old at the time, rising one-legged amputee para swimming Star, whose name is Femi. We also celebrated the second season of SNIF in December 2023. After only 2 months of training, Femi participated in 2 swimming competitions that were not supposed to be inclusive, as the only person with disability and had trained 3 hours non-stop endurance long-distance swimming with Swim Guru Emeka in preparation for the Lagos long-distance swimming competition.
SID secured collaborative partnerships with several organizations, interested in joining to advance the SID cause.
SID shot a short educative & empowering Documentary that will be edited and released by Arise News TV, this 2024.
Self-funded up to this point, thanks to the generosity of its founder, imagine how much more SID could do with your financial support as members of the SID Movement participating in our work from a distance, for the growth of the organization.
In 2024 with your support raising funds to support the work we started already in Africa, we hope to activate in March, the 2nd phase of the SID Action Plan:
- Teaching the 7 special needs Schools of about 140 pupils each, which are looking forward to giving their Pupils the Swim in 1 Day experience this year would become a reality. There is no funding at present to train more than 7 students.
- Training Staff with similar passion & vision to help advance the SID cause rapidly would commence.
- Our SID Water Safety & Climate + disability awareness Campaigns in the media & schools would increase.
Planning for the first of its kind inclusive Swimming Competition with all the Special Needs Schools at the end of the year could commence. - And finally, with your support we would draw closer to our dream of building a world class Swimming academy in the near future (hopefully 3 years).
As it stands right now, the SID Africa, is the only one in Nigeria that possesses the Professional know-how and is doing the following:
