LAURINBURG —Siblings Tariq and Xiomara Getrouw love the water.

Both are collegiate swimmers at St. Andrews University. Tariq was just a couple seconds shy from representing his native Suriname at the Rio Olympics.

The brother and sister visited the Kingdom of Lesotho over the Thanksgiving holiday to share their affinity for swimming and all things aquatic with children in the impoverished African nation.

“We wanted just to make a difference in the world,” said the 22 year-old Xiomara.

Lesotho is a small sovereign nation in Africa, situated inside and land locked by South Africa. The Getrauw siblings chose country because of the high rate of drownings and poverty rate.

Tariq and Xiomara, both seniors at St. Andrews, wanted to introduce the children to water and teach them to swim.

“It is a country in the middle of another country and that is very unusual because countries usually boarder water and these guys never get the opportunity to have swimming lessons and that is why the drowning rate is very high in the country,” said 23 year-old Tariq.

There are only three swimming pools in total in all of Lesotho, the Getrauws learned.

“A lot of the drownings occur in lakes up in the mountains,” Tariq said.

“There are no swimming programs in Lesotho, a high poverty rate and every year there are a lot of people that drown in Lesotho and that is really sad,” Xiomara said.

The children learning to swim for the first time ranged in age from five to 18.

Tariq recalls the first day at the pool hearing many of the children crying at the sight of the pool. But when a brave 6-year-old leaped from the edge of the pool into his arms, crying subsided and it set the tone for a fun few days of swimming for the children.

“The experience I had with these children is that none of them had the opportunity to be in a swimming pool, so this was their first time being next to water,” Tariq said.

The students found themselves attempting to teach more than 150 children how to swim by themselves. They also fed the children at the end of the day with apples, chips and juice — food that some of children might not have gotten at home.

“When we arrived we were told there would be about 40 children,” Tariq said.

Some of the children who participated in the day of swimming were homeless and some had HIV, according to Tariq.

Lesotho ranks third for the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world, with approximately 23 percent of adults living with the disease.

“Being there gave us the opportunity to put their minds somewhere else and get them off the street,” Tariq said.

The swimming effort was part a St. Andrews General Education course called Self, Community, and World that requires students to do community service.

“Xiomora and Tariq took that to a whole new level!” said Tim Beach-Verhey, St. Andrews University dean of students. “At SAU we talk a lot about vocation or calling. We expect our student to use their gifts to serve others and to make a difference in the world. Tariq and Xiomora have really taken that lesson to heart.”

The brother and sister are from Suriname, which is in South America and borders Guyana, French Guiana and Brazil, with a population of approximately 540,000 and the national language is Dutch. The two came to St. Andrews as international students to pursue swimming careers and their education.

Xiomara and Tariq both explained that the hardest part of the trip was seeing the amount of poverty and not being able to do more for the children.

“We wanted to do something that would change the world or help contribute in Africa,” , said Tariq. “We also wanted to enrich the lives of the children by introducing them to water.”

The SAU students are the first to do a project on their own in Lesotho, according to Xiomara.

“It makes me very proud to be associated with a school that has students who take their calling to serve others so seriously. I loved seeing all those children in Lesotho wearing SAU T-shirts. It is inspiring to see our little school making a difference in a place so far away and in such need through our students,” Verhey said.

The trip was made possible by Suriname’s ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Mac-Donald, who is a family friend of the siblings and connected them with Lesotho’s ambassador, Kelebone Maope.

The two met with Kelebone in August and he recommended they get in touch with an organization in Lesotho, called Kick 4 Life, that helped locate the children to participate in the swimming lessons.

Courtesy photo Children in Lesotho wear St. Andrews University T-shirts that were donated by the university. The children learned to swim for the first time thanks to two SAU students, Tariq and Xiomara Getrouw.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_IMG_0068.jpgCourtesy photo Children in Lesotho wear St. Andrews University T-shirts that were donated by the university. The children learned to swim for the first time thanks to two SAU students, Tariq and Xiomara Getrouw.

Courtesy photo Tariq and Xiomara Getrouw and all the children they introduced to water wearing T-shirts donated by St. Andrews University.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_IMG_0079.jpgCourtesy photo Tariq and Xiomara Getrouw and all the children they introduced to water wearing T-shirts donated by St. Andrews University.

Xiomara Getrouw
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_xiomara.jpgXiomara Getrouw

Tariq Getrouw
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_tariq.jpgTariq Getrouw
Young Africans learn to swim

By Nolan Gilmour

[email protected]

 

Reach Nolan Gilmour at 910-506-3171