By Gremma Matiwa
When extreme athlete Cameron Bellamy swims, he swims every stroke to raise money for schools close to Makhanda. His latest achievement — 18 hours and 18 minutes to cross the 60km Issyk Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan last month — has already raised more than $54 500 (USD) for rural Eastern Cape schools.
Bellamy said he “never really wanted to give up” because he had “this great cause, which we are raising money for, to motivate me”. That cause is the Makhanda-based Ubunye Foundation, which works towards sustainable development by supporting women-led childcare initiatives and which left a lasting influence on Bellamy while he studied at Rhodes University.
It all started at Rhodes
“We wanted to support the Eastern Cape because of the experience we had at Rhodes University,” he said.
So, with the help of four friends, Bellamy founded the Ubunye Challenge in 2012 to raise funds for education. He has swum across the English Channel, rowed across the Indian Ocean, and cycled the length of the United Kingdom to raise money for education in the Eastern Cape. The success of these challenges resulted in Bellamy registering the Ubunye Challenge as a charity in the United Kingdom and a non-profit in the United States, where he currently resides.
Bellamy was a child growing up in Cape Town with a view of Table Mountain when he first realised he wanted to be part of an initiative that gives back. “I was too young to realise what it meant and where I was, but I remember thinking ‘every kid must grow up like this’ because it was such a beautiful place and because I hadn’t done anything to get there or have that,” he said.
Crazy things
According to Katy Pepper, director of the Ubunye Foundation, Ubunye Challenge director of fundraising Kevin Jennings has said, “Cameron has done crazy things to raise awareness and funds: rowing a boat from Australia to Africa and swimming the circumference of Barbados (which took more than 40 hours) are just examples of the extremes he’s gone to to help young people.”
Bellamy first visited the Issyk Kul Lake in 2009, after breaking the world record for the longest ocean swim, but the planning for the Kyrgyzstan challenge was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, on 23 August 2025, Cameron Bellamy swam across the the second-largest alpine lake in the world to raise more money for Eastern Cape schools. He did it without a wetsuit.
“The swim went really well,” he said. “There are not too many risks out there. I’ve done much longer swims. I’ve done 150km before. The hard parts were logistical.”
Bellamy attributes the success of the challenge — $54 500 and counting — to people being able to see the results of previous projects. “It feels great because this is quite an ambitious project, trying to raise $60 000 USD.” With the current USD-ZAR exchange rate, that amounts to just over a million rand. Through this initiative, 15 rural Eastern Cape schools will benefit. “I really loved my time at Rhodes,” Bellamy said, “and it’s the reason why friends helped me start the Ubunye Challenge.”
The value of focus
The Ubunye Challenge (in collaboration with the Ubunye Foundation) raises money for rural Eastern Cape children through crowdfunding, and Bellamy’s extreme endurance activities such as rowing from South America to Antarctica. So far, 18 childhood development centres have been built through the Foundation. Bellamy’s organisation has shifted to focusing on primary and high school education. “Because we are a smaller charity, we have to be very focused. We only raise about $50 000 USD a year, but that goes a long way when we put it to a specific cause,” he said.
“Education for us, especially in the Eastern Cape, is extremely important because it is the poorest province in South Africa. We believe that focusing on education will help to alleviate poverty and hunger in the future. It can make a tangible difference.”
The primary schools involved are the Mzomnacane, Ndlambe, Mqwashu, Fort Brown, Ngqowa, Ntloko, Qeto, and Zanolwazi. The Phamla, Mzuxolile, Sobantu, and Kaulele high schools are also beneficiaries.
