Joburg teen to swim Robben Island Escape to raise funds for charity

JOHANNESBURG  - Sixteen-year-old Luca Amerseder is preparing to cross the icy Atlantic Ocean from Robben Island to Cape Town, all in the name of charity and personal growth.

As part of his Grade 11 school project at Michael Mount Waldorf, Amerseder will be swimming to raise R20,000 for Genesis Ministries of South Africa.

“ In my school, Michael Mount Waldorf, we have to pick a grade 11 project that needs us to write and research a historical and theoretical aspect on a topic, and embark on a practical part too. The choice needs to be something out of our comfort zone. I am not a swimmer at all, never liked it or practised it until a few months ago. So swimming was my choice, but open-water swimming in particular,” said Amerseder to Eyewitness News.
 
The Fourways, Johannesburg resident will be swimming the Robben Island Escape in Cape Town in May 2025, an approximately 8km cold Atlantic open water crossing with the hope of raising R20,000 for a Port Shepstone-based charity, Genesis Ministries of South Africa.
 
“ I wanted to do something more unique, something that stretched me and was a real accomplishment. That's when my sister suggested the Robben Island Escape. I then felt the need to make the project even more meaningful and decided to do it for a charity. It was an obvious choice for me to do it for an organization that I had witnessed firsthand last year on a school community camp to Port Shepstone.”
 
 Genesis Hope South Africa is a non-profit organisation that currently houses eight different ministries or initiatives, each one designed to target specific needs in our local community.

“I think Luca is nuts, you wouldn’t find me swimming in cold, shark-infested waters, kidding. Luca is a young man who came with his school on a volunteer trip to work with our various programs.. To see the willingness of this young man to go the extra mile to raise funds and awareness for Genesis is humbling and a sense of encouragement for us in the future leaders of our country,” said ‎Jono Downham from Genesis Hope South Africa.
 
The organisation has three focus areas, which are care, sports and education and social justice, with the hope of bringing meaningful and lasting change to their surrounding communities.
 
 “We are living in a time where for so many, hope is lost... Hope for a brighter future, hope for freedom from past challenges, hope for a sense of purpose and significance, Hope for opportunity. At Genesis Hope, we have the privilege to engage, to love, to walk alongside our fellow countrymen as they come from a place of darkness and disappear into a place of restoration and freedom,” said Downham.
 
Amerseder, who is 16 years old, told Eyewitness News that when his class visited Genesis Ministries, they were exposed to the many areas in which these people make a difference.
 
“For instance, we spent time with the little orphaned children or spent the day in the local community alongside the medical team, helping and caring for the sick.  I noticed the attention to detail and the relationships that were formed between the nurses and the ill people and it made a big impression on me. So when I had to think of a charity, I was immediately sure that Genesis was who I would want to support.”
 
Genesis Ministries of South Africa, through its Community Hope and Care programme, provides medical and emotional support to members of the surrounding community who have suffered from strokes, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, TB, cancer, post-operative conditions and chronic illnesses.
 
“I have created a back-a-buddy fundraising campaign in which the public, anonymously or not,  can donate any amount towards the cause” said Amerseder.