Ex-prisoner’s daughter to swim from island
SOUTH African former swimmer Oneida Cooper from Joburg will swim from Robben Island to Bloubergstrand to raise funds for her non-profit organisation.
Robben Island is where her father, Struggle stalwart Dr Saths Cooper, was incarcerated during apartheid for his political activism.
Cooper, 25, launched her nonprofit swimming school, Making Waves Together South Africa, last year to teach children and adults to swim.
“I will start about 7am on Sunday and aim to complete the swim in about two hours,” said Cooper, who has accumulated a string of impressive swimming credits since she started swimming at the age of 12.
These include representing South Africa at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in India, and the All Africa Junior Championships in 2009. She also swam at the Youth Olympics and the Mare Nostrum Series in 2010.
She said she had received a full swimming scholarship from 2011 to 2015 from the University of New Hampshire to swim in the US.
“I came back and started my outreach community skills development programme last year. It teaches kids from underprivileged communities how to swim. Our youngest swimmer is 2 years old, and the oldest person is 48,” she said.
“If you know how to swim it is your obligation to teach someone else to swim. It doesn’t have to be a colossal change, just one person can make a difference.”