Swimming Gala organised to build schools in Nepal, Cambodia

Manama: The St Christopher’s school Saar Campus held a swimming gala on May 6 to raise money for the Infant and Junior Schools’ project in association with United World Schools (UWS) – to build and run a school in Cambodia, and the Senior School students UWS project – to build and maintain a school in
Nepal.

The event saw a fantastic turnout, with 130 swimmers participating, including 23 adult swimmers. Races were held over 8 different distances in 5 age
categories.

Roma Vrijhof, year 9 student at St Christopher’s School and her swim coach Yavor Zahariev were the key organisers of the
event.

“We are both swim fanatics and wanted to do something for the victims of the earthquakes; earlier this year I organised football tournaments at the Rugby Club and we have raised 3000 bd in total so far,” said
Roma.

Yavor added: “There is no better way to bring children together than through sports; many of my swimmers and parents have helped out at this charity event and I am so proud of their efforts.”

Each swimmer supported the charity by donating  BD3 to take part in each race. Highlights of the day were the adult races, which saw a husband-wife race between sport fanatics Stephen Allen and his wife Meagan, and the children were excited to see their parents and coaches battle it out in the water!

During the day various efforts were made to raise money, including the sale of home baked cookies, t- shirts and raffle tickets.

Various sponsors supported the charity swim. Aquacool was present at the event, handing out free bottles of water to all swimmers. Andrew North, GM of Vopak in Saudi Arabia handed out the medals to race winners and commented: “Vopak is excited about supporting this great event. Compliments to Roma, Yavor and all volunteers making this such a success!”