TEAM TACKLES CONNECTICUT RIVER IN SWIM FOR CONGO

keith harmon snow, consciousbeingalliance

Keith, Alex and Arsenio about to begin on at 1:45
pm on 31 August 2013.

On Saturday 31 August 2013, as severe electrical storms raged over the Connecticut River in southern Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, three CONGO SWIM supporters set off from Springfield Vermont to support the CONGO SWIM initiative with the goal of reaching Bellows Falls (VT), ten miles down the Connecticut River, in solidarity with the people of the war-torn Great Lakes of Africa. 

The swim began with overcast skies, severe electrical storm and flash-flood warnings, and in Springfield VT there was intermittent lightning and a growing northerly headwind.  Two miles into the swim the waves were getting bigger, with small rolling whitecaps impeding the lone swimmer Keith Harmon Snow and kayak-support Alex Viandes.  By 5:00 pm -- after about five miles into the swim, serious thunderstorms had set in, and the northerly wind and waves were substantial.

This initiative was inspired by the CONGO SWIM initiative, where other people have been swimming or offering some action to support the people of Congo through Friends of the Congo's projects. Congo swim was founded by swimmer Keris Dahlkamp, who began his 22 mile swim of Lake Tahoe on August 24, 2013 and completed it the next day.

This swim was for all people of the Great Lakes of Africa countries: the peoples of Burundi, Congo, Rwanda and Uganda; and for the people of Ethiopia and Sudan. These are all places where Keith has worked and where he fell in love with the people and land.  The US military and its allies are behind massive violence and plunder in these countries, and the western media continues to obscure reality and blame the victims, and this is true of progressive media too.  This swim was also for the survivors of radiation poisoning due to the nuclear poisons complex.

Keith Harmon Snow began swimming from Springfield VT at 1:50 PM, with Alex Viandes paddling a kayak with him.  Arsenio Ferreira, an Angolan national, began running from Springfield VT and he joined the team on the CT River and began swimming with Keith about four miles downstream from Springfield VT.

Swimming to Support Women and Youth in The Congo

Congo Swim is a global collective action to raise awareness about the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II while garnering support for Congolese women and youth who are waging a courageous battle for peace, justice and human dignity in the Congo.

People of all ages and abilities are registering to swim or host a party in a location of their choice on or before August 25, 2013 with proceeds going to benefit Congolese women and youth led groups receiving grants from the Global Fund for Women and Friends of the Congo, as well as the USA Swimming Foundation's Make a Splash initiative to prevent children from drowning in the US.

Keris Dahlkamp, the founder of Congo Swim will be striving to swim the 22 mile length of Lake Tahoe which he expects will take him 12 hours.  Speaking of the Crisis in the Congo, Keris says "If it were my wife, mother or daughter being violated, I would hope that those who could do something, would do something.  We must launch out into the deep.  Join me."

Coco Ramazani, a survivor of extreme sexual violence in the Congo whose story is told in Tell This To My Mother, will join Keris along with Charles Chapman, the first African-American to swim the English Channel, and other swimmers for a ceremony to mark the true price paid in the international scramble for Congo's spectacular natural wealth. Coco says "It is too painful to imagine that all that has happened to me in Congo is happening to other women and children right now.  For this reason, I decided to break my silence about the rapes, my HIV status, and the post-traumatic stress disorder."