Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation: Learning to Swim to Save Lives

The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation was founded in December 2012, with the aim of combating the worldwide problem of drowning.

320,000 deaths per year – according to the World Health Organization, that is the number of drownings that occur in the world.  More than half of these victims are under the age of 25, with children under five most affected by this phenomenon.  That is why Princess Charlene of Monaco, a former top-level swimmer who was ranked fifth in the Sydney Olympics in the 4x100m event, has set a priority objective for her Foundation – to save lives by preventing drowning.

Since it was launched in December 2012, the Princess Charlene Foundation has therefore been working to raise public awareness of the dangers of water and teach children about prevention measures, in particular through the “Learn to Swim” and “Water Safety” programmes.

With its “Sport & Education” programme, the Foundation uses sports activities to help disadvantaged children to further their personal development.

Since 2018, to promote its cause, the Foundation has been organising the Water Bike Challenge. “Many years ago, we started throwing around the daunting idea of organising a fund-raising sporting event like no other: the crossing of the Mediterranean on water bikes. This evolved into the Riviera Water Bike Challenge, which took place in 2017 between Nice and Monaco and in 2018 in Monaco. This new activity then went on to represent the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation and what it stands for. In 2020, the global pandemic prevented us from organising  the Riviera Water Bike Challenge, which brings together a large number of participants. At that point, the original idea of the Crossing resurfaced and became “Calvi-Monaco””, explains  Gareth Wittstock, Secretary General.