MAKING WAVES FOR CHANGE

12 kilometres for SOLIDARITY

ABOUT SWIM FOR GOOD
Swim for Good is a global movement that honors the 12km journey many refugees make across the Aegean Sea in search of safety.

It raises awareness of the resilience and risks faced by displaced people.

Through sport, we call for humane migration policies and stand in solidarity with those seeking a better future.

Why Swim for Good?

Sport unites people across cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, making it a powerful medium for helping displaced individuals.

In this context, sport is a space for healing, empowerment, and connection. By creating spaces that foster inclusivity and resilience. It helps restore dignity, build bridges between communities, and provide a sense of hope to those navigating displacement.

Through the Swim for Good, we aim to:

Promote social inclusion through sport

Use sport as a tool for resilience building

Raise awareness about forced migration and insecure escape routes

Increase visibility for humanitarian causes

Challenge ideas and break stereotypes of migrants

Why Swim 12km?

The Aegean Sea is one of the most active migration routes into Europe and, because of this, it is also at the centre of much controversy. Lack of legal migration routes, stricter border enforcement and illegal pushbacks all contribute to a rising death toll in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean.

Yoga and Sport with Refugees operates a sport for good programme on Lesvos which seeks to reset the relationship displaced people have with the water through swim classes. The Yusra Mardini Foundation builds on the incredible journey of Yusra herself, spreading that resilience and determination to others who take a similar path. Swim for Good represents these journeys, giving voice to the thousands who have died and thousands more who survive with lasting trauma.

Our purpose is simple: safe passageways for displaced people and a humane reception of migrants in Europe. We stand in solidarity with those who have lost their lives in search for a better future.

Get Involved!

For 2025, we are aiming higher than ever to increase our international impact. We will raise greater awareness about the challenges faced by displaced individuals and advocate for safer passageways and humane reception for migrants.

PARTNER

Organize a group or individual swim relay event in your city during the campaign. Promote and share it.

Your event can be as big or as small as you like. The important thing is that you raise awareness in your local community about the situation in the Aegean.

ADVOCATE

Organize a non-swimming, awareness-raising event in your city or online. Get the word out and raise some funds.

You could run an art exhibit, a fundraiser, a movie night or a panel discussion. Anything that gets people talking about the issues!

CHAMPION

Use your platform/resources to support from afar. Contribute financially or raise awareness by posting and sharing.

We’ll provide you with social media templates, logos, colours, taglines and other material to help you spread the word!

Alaa Maso swimming in 2023 - 12km cross border swim for good!

Swim For Good Origins

In 2023, Yoga and Sport with Refugees ambassador and Olympic Refugee swimmer, Alaa Maso, completed the first Swim For Good when he swam 12km from Lausanne (Switzerland) to Evian (France). Alaa is a Syrian athlete that competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in the 2020 Olympics in 50m freestyle. This first event brought awareness to those taking the high-risk journey to reach the EU in search of safety.

In 2024, we raised the stakes! The Yusra Mardini Foundation joined YSR on the Swim for Good organizing committee and we were honoured to host Yusra Mardini herself on Lesvos for the event. We streamed the event live and it was hugely successful, despite difficult weather conditions on the day. In 2024, we also partnered with organisations across 3 continents to carry out partner swims in Lausanne, Athens, Kampala, Thailand, Copenhagen and many other locations around the globe!

Yoga and Sport with Refugees (YSR)

Yoga and Sport with Refugees has a simple mission: building happier and healthier communities through the power of sport. Founded in 2017, YSR started on the Greek island of Lesvos and has since expanded to Athens, Ioannina and Paris. YSR changes lives and creates better opportunities through sports. Their projects co-create spaces where people from all backgrounds can pursue passions, work on goals and be together.

Yusra Mardini Foundation

Along with our champion and inspiration, Becky Crowe, we were thrilled to be joined by Yusra Mardini and Sven Spannekrebs from the Yusra Mardini Foundation (YMF)! Yusra and Sven both pulled their swimsuits on and jumped in the water in Lesvos to reach the total of 12km.

Global Participation

By nature, the Swim for Good is designed to include anyone, from anywhere in the world! As long as you have a body of water (closed or open), you can support us in our mission to bring solidarity to those crossing unsafe stretches of water to seek asylum. Various other communities and teams supported the 2024 S4G, check them out below! So pull on your swimwear and start training to join us and make waves for 2025!

Partner Swim Locations

Lesvos

On Lesvos, we jumped into the water with 54 swimmers. We are incredibly proud of the swimmers who joined from our swim program and had just learned to swim in the previous weeks. Furthermore, we were thrilled to have Yusra Mardini, personally join the swim on the island!

Athens

The team in the Greek capital swam the 12km distance on Edem beach with 11 courageous swimmers.

They were especially happy to see local greek beach-goers spontaneously join the quest to accomplish the 12km as a team!

Paris

The Paris team swam in a pool with 15 swimmers, ranging from professionals, amateurs to beginners.

It was amazing to see so many people from different cultures come together. A special thank you to Zaki for his amazing motivation!

Lausanne

For the second year in a row, Olympian swimmers crossed the Swiss-French border honoring the Swim For Good.

A team of 8 led by Olympians Anne-Sophie Thilo, Sabine Hazboun and Jamie Yeung accomplished the 12km open water swim.

Bordeaux

Our friends from Bordeaux Break Borders, a sister project, dedicated to empower displaced people through sport, joined forces with us and swam the 12km in Lake Bordeaux with 15 people.

Copenhagen

Christine Christensen from Copenwater in Denmark, swam the 12km in open water and as a relay with 3 other strong women!

Kampala

The talented swimmers from the Aqua Ankii Swim Club in Kampala Uganda, swam the relay as a team in two training sessions of 6km each.

UTS Asia

United Through Sport joined the Swim For Good in Asia and swam 12km across many cities!

Support the YSR Swim Program on Lesvos!

Yoga and Sport with Refugees runs an extensive swim program every year on Lesvos, separate from the Swim for Good campaign. It runs classes 5 days per week for refugees and asylum seekers, to help them reconnect with the water in a positive way and feel comfortable with this element of nature that, for many, is associated with a traumatic journey to escape hardship, violence or oppression.
You can donate directly and empower Swim for Good partners YSR to build happier and healthier communities through the power of sport!