It’s been a good year for open water swimmer Arafat Gatabazi. The youngster‚ who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo on foot when he was a teenager‚ wants to use his swimming skills to help trauma victims.

The 21-year-old fled his war-torn country in 2012. He crossed five countries and ended up in Cape Town.

Gatabazi is a relative newbie to the water. He only learned to swim four years ago. This year he was named the 2016 Open Water Swimmer of the Year by the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association.

And in just a few days he wants to swim around Robben Island for charity — a 10km distance in water temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius.

His aim is to raise R20000 for LifeLine Western Cape‚ an organisation which provides counselling for people who have suffered emotional trauma. To date‚ he has already raised R4000.

“LifeLine normally receives phone calls from people in need of counselling. But now they are going to different places doing counselling‚ like going to Langa … so they need to take volunteers as well‚” said Gatabazi.

“This kind of swim is both mentally and physically (challenging). So‚ I have been doing quite a few long distance swims and also been training hard in the cold water to be able to focus mentally‚” he said

His dream was to complete the Robben Island-to-shore swim‚ which he did only 11 months after he learned to swim.

On his first attempt he developed hypothermia in the last stretch before reaching the shore. “I didn’t know what was going on‚ I blacked out‚” he said.

Since then he has completed a 7.5km swim from Robben Island to Big Bay and an 8.5km swim around Cape Point.

The upcoming swim is set for December 26‚ depending on weather and surf conditions.

He is optimistic about raising the money.

“With these kind of things you never know‚ a lot of people want to help but they don’t know where to help. That’s why I am creating awareness‚ for people to know what LifeLine is. And once the message reaches people‚ I think they should be able to help‚” he said. – TMG Digital/The Times