I've been swimming open water for a while and this year have done a relay crossing of the English Channel and a solo 11.5km around Robben Island in Cape Town. This time, I'm attempting to swim across the 70km length of Lake Geneva, as part of a four-woman relay team from the Serpentine Swimming Club

I have known and worked with Peace Direct for over a year and seen the success of their approach to building peace: supporting local actors in Africa, Asia and the Middle East to be at the heart of solutions to end violent conflict. I believe that local peacebuilders are the ultimate endurance athletes, working tirelessly to protect people and help rebuild lives often shattered by conflict. These brave people have the skills, connections and know-how to bring an end to violence and build long-term stability and peace in their communities. 

The swim will be long (up to 35 hours), cold and tough, so I'm swimming for those peacebuilders and the people they support. Thank you for any support you can give. Below you ca see what your donation will pay for. To find out more about Peace Direct visit their website or their online resource on local peacebuilding: Insight on Conflict. 

www.peacedirect.org

www.insightonconflict.org

£10 will pay for young people in Pakistan to travel to an intensive training workshop to learn to recognise extremism and solve problems non-violently

£15 will pay for our local partners in DR Congo to trek into the bush to meet with rebel groups and identify child soldiers to rescue

£24 will pay for a foster family to take in one child soldier for three months if we can’t trace their parents

£46 will support two peace activists to talk to young people about the dangers of extremism and violence

£60 will train one child soldier in DR Congo to learn a trade such as mechanics

£200 will train one young person on the Afghan-Pakistan border with the skills to resist extremism

£260 will help rescue and resettle one child soldier in DR Congo

£500 will help set up a peace court in DR Congo so villagers can get justice, stop violence, empower women and break the cycle of conflict

£756 could pay for a micro-grant for three young people to set up small businesses in Somalia