Earlier this year, I had the pleasure to live in Cotonou, Benin as an English teacher for 10 months. Benin is a small, French-speaking country next to Nigeria in West Africa. Growing up in California, I immediately saw the potential for Cotonou to be a home for competitive swimming, but in Africa, I learned that there is a wide gap between the reality and the dream.
The local government made swimming a focus of its national development in 1982, when they opened the door for China to finance an Olympic training complex in Cotonou. The $10 million project included a 35,000 seat soccer stadium and was dubbed Stad de l’Amitie (Friendship Stadium). The aquatic facility is comprised of three pools- two 50-meter lap pools and a 5-meter deep pool with 10-meter diving platform. When finished, it was the first Olympic-sized pool in West Africa. Today, it is still open to the public but there are hardly any funds to maintain it.
Living and teaching nearby, I took the opportunity to swim at the “Stad” about twice a week. My first time there, I noticed there were only a few locals sitting at plastic tables scattered around the pool deck and sipping the local beer. By the time I jumped in and finished my warm-up, they had left their tables and were standing alongside the pool shooting video of me with their cell phones. They asked a million questions and were amazed that I could keep my body afloat. Finally, they always finished with one question, “Can you teach me how to swim?”
I met many locals at the pool but two girls stand out in my mind. One served beer to the pool-side loungers. I told her she was lucky because she must go swimming every day. I was heart-broken when she told me she didn’t have the money to buy a swimsuit. After buying her a swimsuit at the local second-hand clothes market, I saw her jump in the pool for the first time. Another girl had the courage to actually ask me how to swim, and I spent about an hour teaching her how to flutter kick across the pool on a half-full inner tube.
Now that I am back in California, I hope to give something back to the people that gave so much to me. I am creating a non-profit to not only buy swimsuits and goggles, but also to teach young Beninese how to swim. The goal is to empower youth through fostering the values swimming provides as well as allowing young people, and especially girls, access to sports. We have begun giving lessons but we need help to continue so I am raising money on gofundme under Help Benin Swim , https://www.gofundme.com/vva6c8ny.
Someone came up with the idea over 30 years ago to build an Olympic aquatic facility in Benin; I want to follow-through to make sure their dream remains alive.
For more information please contact Dan Airth at danairth@yahoo.com or visit https://www.gofundme.com/HelpBeninSwim.
