Township Kids Get Extra Special Christmas Present

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A few weeks after their annual ‘Social Apprentice’ Programme, we were happy to receive news that two of the Wellington College students were coming back to sunny South Africa on holiday with their parents for Christmas. On receiving this news and the wish to spend a day with their Junior School of Excellence (JSE) buddies, we were more than happy to ensure that Rob and James could grant a Christmas wish and be reunited with their recently found buddies from South Africa, Odwa and Sinalo.

The two JSE boys were picked up early morning to spend the day with the Watters and Garvey families and the excitement was almost too much for our JSE boys as the day approached. The 22nd December finally arrived and the two groups of boys enjoyed a beautiful day together on the beaches of St Francis Bay, a coastal town situated midway between Port Elizabeth (PE) and Knysna. It was an active day filled with fun activities and memories that will be cherished forever. This was a first for Odwa and Sinalo who had never been outside of PE and certainly never had the chance to enjoy the luxury of speedboats and jet skis. The day culminated in a race on the beach which was won by Odwa and Sinalo, who were rewarded with medals in a fun ceremony at the end.

For the families, it was a great pleasure to have Odwa and Sinalo; as they expressed how well behaved the two JSE boys were. Rob and James had also been given letters and Christmas cards by their friends back home in England to pass on to their relevant South African buddies. It is great to see that the children are being pro-active in maintaining the friendships built on their tour.

We truly appreciate the effort the Watters’ and Garvey’s put in to making it possible for the boys to re-unite. The children in our programs are not fortunate enough to have such outings with their families, so it meant the world to these two boys. We hope it is a relationship that will continue into the future.

“Spending the day with my buddy was the best Christmas present ever because I thought I would never see him again. The year 2012 was a very special year to me.”- Sinalo Mazoko, JSE Beneficiary 2012

Our School of Excellence Buddies Up With Wellington College

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Once again, it was that time of the year when we had our annual visit from our good friends at Wellington College. For three consecutive years now, this UK school has been paying us visits as part of their ‘Social Apprentice’ Programme , where they spend a full week getting involved in our programmes and community projects associated with us.

The week of the 20th-28th October was filled with emotions, especially for the 30 children from Wellington on their first visit to South Africa. Upon arrival, our staff welcomed them in a truly South African manner; a braai (South African barbeque) and traditional dancing in the evening. The Wellington staff found it very entertaining to watch some of the kids try their hand in some Zulu and Xhosa dancing, which was a sight for sore eyes for the rest of the group! With the excitement buzzing about the packed week ahead, the group, unlike us, was not very bothered about the gloomy weather they brought from England.

In order for the group to appreciate the opportunity presented to them in this tour, they had to have a true sense of what a typical life looks like for the average South African. Their first working day started off with a visit to our Junior School of Excellence (JSE) where they had a warm welcome from the teachers as well as a tour of the school. This was rather eye-opening as this school was nothing compared to the school life they are used to. Some of the most evident differences were the underdeveloped sports grounds and lack of facilities such as school library, gym, cafeteria, art, science, music departments etc. After the tour of the school, it was time to see some of the living conditions of the children; a township tour that included the history of the townships of Port Elizabeth. Driving and walking around the townships, the kids got to witness the poverty in South Africa they often hear about in the media. With the heavy rains in the weeks leading to this visit, the group saw the damage the floods had done and the distraught families in the informal settlements with flooded shacks.

The afternoon was full of excitement as the Wellington kids met their buddies for the week from the JSE and relationships were built. The children demonstrated to us the power of youth by immediately bonding with their buddies and casting all social and cultural differences aside. In their pairs, the kids got involved in different activities for the remainder of the afternoon. Included in these activities was the painting of the soon to be Computer / Library Room at the JSE as well as painting some pillars at the school with Wellington’s 8 aptitudes approach to education and wellbeing of children. The following two days were spent camping in the wild, where the Wellington group learnt some survival skills. For the rest of the week, the Wellington group got involved in community projects we are linked with, such as Zama after school club and Khayalethu Haven for street children; spending a lot of time assisting disadvantaged children. The working week ended off with a day outing for all the buddies. All 60 kids were taken bowling and enjoyed a rugby match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; which was built specifically for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. The bowling was a first time experience for the JSE children, as was the stadium experience for most of them.

The final touch for the Wellington group was the unexpected send-off as their buddies surprised them at the airport to bid them farewell. As emotional as it was, everyone was happy to have met and made new friends that would forever remain in their memories.

We’d like to thank Neil Lunnon and his team for all the fundraising done for UTS, and for bringing us yet another delightful group of Wellington scholars! We look forward to hosting next year’s group and maintaining the great relationship built with Wellington over the past few years.

“The relationship with Wellington is so multifaceted, we get such a combination of fantastic results, not only do the children build great relationships and broaden their horizons to whole new worlds, not only does our JSE benefit from the skills and knowledge transfer from Wellington, but the children benefit from new facilities and scholarship options due to the funds raised by the Wellington children”, Nosipho Xapile, Programme Manager, United Through Sport.

Dutch Hockey Team Visit South Africa

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On the 07th August 2012, United Through Sport was pleased to host Were Di Tilburg, a Dutch Hockey team on a South African tour. A total of 39 people were with the group; which consisted of two girls’ teams and the coaching staff.

The girls had been on tour for a few days before visiting our organisation and had been playing against some of the best schools in the country. Our visit would be slightly different for the girls though; we would give them some insight to the less fortunate areas of our country; get them to mingle with children in disadvantaged schools, do some coaching with them and exchange cultural values and beliefs.

Before getting to the Junior School of Excellence (JSE) for a coaching clinic, we took the group on a township tour, which included a visit to a local museum and a visit to a “Sangoma” (an African traditional healer). A couple of the girls and staff got dressed up in the Sangoma dress code, which was quite a beautiful sight and an awesome experience for them!

At the JSE the Dutch players got involved in mentoring session where the girls taught the kids some Dutch songs and games and had a good time; learning a bit more about their backgrounds. The girls were a bit emotional and really had a heart-warming session with the kids, they came out of the session with a different perspective on life; they all seemed to be on a mission to complain less and appreciate more in life as their eyes were opened up to the hardships people face daily within our communities. At the end of the session, lunch was served for everyone and the girls moved on to the second part of the coaching before their matches with the Gelvandale semi-professional hockey teams.

The last part of the day before the matches was coaching at the Gelvandale hockey turf, which the girls enjoyed very much and got them ready for their matches later that evening. The atmosphere was amazing at the clubhouse, with the Dutch players feeling right at home hearing Afrikaans, which is very similar to Dutch! Were Di Tilburg junior girls won their game while the senior took a beating from the local team. The presentation after the matches was an amazing time for both teams to bond. Gifts were exchanged and the two clubs wished each other well and good relations were built, in the hope of crossing paths again in the near future. The relationship has now inspired the Gelvandale Hockey Club (a team made up of players from previously disadvantaged backgrounds) to aim to tour Holland in 2014.

A few weeks after the visit, we were happy to receive 9 pallets of boxes of hockey equipment and kit that Were Di Tilburg donated to us, including 900 hockey sticks and 120 tracksuits. The teams had started with collecting the donations and raising funds before their departure, so that the shipment could arrive soon after their visit. United Through Sport is thrilled at the start of the relationship and hopes it will continue long into the future.

“The children we met today had so little and yet they were so happy and friendly and welcoming to us. It’s definitely taught me about appreciating what I have and being kinder to others”, Dutch Player, Were Di Tilburg.

Our Kids Visit the Lion Park

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As the term came to the end for a three week school holiday, it was time to reward the Junior School of Excellence (JSE) children for their dedication throughout the term. A big bang at the end of each term is a good way to keep the children motivated. This was also a great way of getting our older Senior School of Excellence (SSE) kids to ‘give back’ by chaperoning the JSE kids and providing some mentorship during the day.

On the 26th June 2012, eleven UTS staff and six SSE kids chaperoned fifty children from the JSE on a trip to Seaview Lion Park. The selection is based on the reward system we use at the JSE for the most consistent attendees. As well as 30 lions the park also boasts other big cats such as tigers, leopards, cheetahs and a beautiful panther cub; a rare sight to behold. The children got to see some of their favourite wild animals, and were excited to be in such close proximity to them! Giraffes, zebras, impalas and many more animals freely roam around the park. To make the experience more fun, snacks were prepared for them to enjoy while spotting the wildlife and after leaving the park, everyone was treated to a yummy lunch at KFC!

The day was an amazing start to their holiday and a great way for the children to bond with each other, outside the school environment. It was the ideal opportunity for the older SSE children to share information about their experiences of the change from a township school to a multi-racial one, and a great way to keep the younger children inspired to do their best so they could also be selected for the SSE next year.

As the organisation, it is vital for us to engage kids from our programs in fun, social activities, especially activities that are educational and that broaden their perspectives in more ways than one. The day trip to Seaview was much appreciated by the kids, something they will never forget; they couldn’t wait to get home and share their incredible experience with their families!

John & Richard Run Comrades (89km)

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A huge thanks goes out to John Shirley and Richard Leech for raising £1500 towards our work. We need even more incredible people like them to get involved with exciting fundraising challenges; not only do you achieve yourself but you also help provide a platform for thousands of kids to reach their potential and achieve in greater areas of their own life!

John and Richard’s Story:
You are probably asking, “Why are we running 89km on Sunday 3rd of June from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in Comrades the biggest and best ultramarathon of our times?”

– Are we crazy? May be!
– Are we celebrating the queens jubilee? We’ll leave that for you to decide.
– Drinking? Yes, of course!
Back in 2010 Richard and I were enjoying a poolside beer at Jafa’s in Hanoi. As usual, I was harping on about this great running book “The Lore of Running” and mentioned one of the featured legends “Bruce Fordyce”, he won Comrades 9 times, unbelievable! Turns out Richard has met Bruce and has lived in Durban so Richard suddenly said “I’d love to run Comrades”. The beer tasted good and the thought of running comrades 89km in the distant future seemed a romantic possibility so I replied. “Why not? I’ll join you!”…….. Now, today, we are about to take on a challenge that seemed totally unthinkable to us even 6 months ago.

Thanks guys for your hard work and achievement.

Youth Day Celebrations in South Africa

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To celebrate Youth Day, we held an event on 15th June in partnership with Love Life and Letsema Circle at the Jabavu Rugby Stadium in Kwa-Nobuhle, Uitenhage. The Department of Health, Education, Home Affairs were also involved on the day, with stations set up for Diabetes testing, High Blood Pressure and HIV/AIDS testing (DoH), and birth registration and ID registration (DoHA). Ten schools from the community were invited to the event and our volunteers were happy to get a feel of what other organisations do.

Opening the event were performances by the youth of Kwa-Nobuhle, including traditional dancing and musicals based on the history and the meaning of June 16. This was also very educational to our international volunteers; getting the deeper meaning and importance of their involvement on this day. The theme of the event was centred on bridging the gap between the youth and their parents, where the parents are of support to the youth. The youth were to enjoy the activities planned, together with their parents, engaging in sport and educational programmes.

Dialogue was opened between the adults and the young people on topics affecting youth in society. Issues such as peer pressure, the difference in generations and times that affect the parent-child relationship were discussed in groups. Options for a channel of communication between the child and the parents were discussed as it was discovered that this was a prevalent problem in the community. We know firsthand how most of the children in our programmes are too scared to approach their parents with their problems and prefer to talk to our life skills coaches instead. The Love Life team also had an open discussion on the challenges of youth as well as information sharing on career guidance.

On the sports side of the event, we were doing what we know best; engaging 104 young people in sports and life skills activities, using the Yputh Development through Sports (YDS) toolkit to discuss HIV/AIDS. The children were ecstatic to have such fun activities which catered for their age group, compared to the norm of listening to speeches all day long. They also got to watch two soccer matches; one of which being a ladies game. Also organised was a boxing bout and a taebo session.

The event had a total reach of 823 people. Love Life had 63 youth in their discussions and Letsema had a total of 53 taking part in their activities. The health department tested a total of 37 for HIV/AIDS and 51 for high blood pressure and diabetes. The department also distributed a total of 6000 condoms on the day. The department of home affairs had a total of 30 enquiries on the day, which were applications for identity documents and birth registration.

This event was a great success, especially since it was a first of its kind in this community. Our international volunteers were happy to experience such events that bring out the culture and history of South Africa. We received positive feedback from the community, with the wish of having more events like this. All partners in the event are happy to have been part of it and to have brought activities to the community of Kwa-Nobuhle to celebrate Youth Day.

“I had such a great time at the stadium, dancing and playing with the kids but also learnt a great deal about the struggles that South African youth went through.” – Stacey Watson, Football Coaching Volunteer from Canada.

Facilities Boost for School of Excellence

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There have been some exciting new developments at the Junior School of Excellence (JSE); the sports facilities are looking great! The children are very excited to start playing on their upgraded facilities, which will do wonders for their skills development. The upgrade of the facilities was sponsored by terres des homes Germany through the, ‘A Chance To Play Programme’ as part of their on-going support of United Through Sport’s mission to bring the opportunity of playing structured sports activities to every child in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The all round facility upgrade included building a new netball court, two cricket nets, rugby and football posts, a spectator stand for up to 70 people and purchasing an industrial lawn mower and line marking machine to allow the school to maintain the rugby and football fields.

The new facilities have now allowed the School to enter into the local Super 12 competition where they will be the only township school competing. This was previously not possible as they were unable to host home matches against top (former model c) schools. The children are all very excited at the thought of hosting multi-racial schools and playing against “abelungu” (white people) at home, as this will be a first amongst the township schools of the area.

These new facilities have been a great boost for the school and fantastic starting point, the next goal is to raise funds to extend the netball court to a tennis court and improve the hockey playing surface.

“I am so excited to play our first match at home, it will be the first time my dad can come and watch me play, and he will sit in the stands to watch me, like I am a professional!” – Zizipho Ndongeni, 12 yrs old, grade 7

Over 8500 Children Enjoy Sports

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The Mass Participation Programme (MPP) has continued to reach new heights in the first half of the year; reaching 43 schools and a total of 8600 kids with a total of 12 sessions per child in sports and life skills activities, totalling 103,200 sessions!

The MPP not only closes the sports gap (as physical education is no longer offered by teachers in these schools), but our life skills coaches bridge the generation gap between parent and child in some of these children’s lives. The fact that we have young energetic staff hailing from the same communities makes it easy for the children to approach them and open up about personal matters they are not completely comfortable talking to teachers about.

Having the international volunteers involved in this programme is a great advantage as the children love to engage with them and learn about their different cultures and backgrounds. Mixing with international coaches makes the children highly motivated and broadens their horizons to the wider world beyond the township.

“As this is our longest running program, it is heart warming to know that we still continue to bring joy and excitement to thousands of children in the communities of Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounding areas while still managing to impart key life skills and educational messages!” – Hannah Clare, General Manager, United Through Sport.

Junior School of Excellence is Launched

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2012 marks the beginning of a new program at United Through Sport South Africa; the Junior School of Excellence (JSE). This is an after-school program based at Isaac Booi, a school in the disadvantaged communities of Port Elizabeth that we have worked with for the past 6 years. Children from the Zwide community are invited to partake in the sports development, personal mentoring, academic support as well as life skills that are offered in this program over a one year period.

From our Mass Participation Program, children are identified for their dedication and commitment to the program, as well as their sporting ability. United Through Sport also works with local sports federations to identify talented children to partake in the JSE. A thorough selection process is done, which includes home visits to assess the situation at home and have a better understating of the family background. At United Through Sport, we aim to have a personal relationship with each and every child in the JSE program to better understand the behaviour patterns and personalities of the children. On a daily basis, the children also receive a nutritional meal in the program. This on its own is an incentive for some of the children not to miss a day’s attendance.

During their year long program at the Junior School of Excellence, these children will have the opportunity to be trained by top sports coaches, play in challenging fixtures, receive mentoring and academic support as well as inter-act with International volunteers who play a big role in boosting the confidence and English skills. The beneficiaries of this program are children that come from the poorest backgrounds in broken homes and go to disadvantaged schools. The JSE therefore provides a platform for these children to be developed holistically as well as be exposed to opportunities they may not have had otherwise. As part of the program, these children will have the opportunity of meeting and inter-acting with some of their local sport role models, who also come from similar backgrounds. This will mean a lot to these children as it will give them hope for a bright future and a drive to succeed.

At the end of the year, a selected number of graduates will move on to the next level, the Senior School of Excellence (SSE), where they will be afforded scholarships to Former Model C schools for their high school career. At the SSE they will receive top level teaching, highly intense sports coaching and they will school with children from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Most importantly their chances of going on to University will rise from 3% (the township norm) to 98% (the norm for former model c schools in this area).

Towards the end of last year, United Through Sport donated a series of encyclopaedias to Isaac Booi Primary School. The donation was a great way of strengthening the relationship with the school. Having such useful sources of information for the children would not only add value to our project, but to the school as a whole. The principal of Isaac Booi, Mr Mtyobo, was thrilled to receive the latest addition to the school library (a beautifully painted container in the school yard as there is not a library facility in the actual school building). It is “normal” school infrastructure such as a school library, school hall and sports facilities which are standard at Former Model C schools but are rarely seen in township schools.. Through programs such as our Junior School of Excellence we aim to afford all children these opportunities, reaching out to the poorest families.

UTS vs Grassroot Soccer Match

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On Friday, 21st October United Through Sport South Africa were invited to play a friendly soccer match against our fellow NGO, Grassroot Soccer (GRS); who also use the power of sport to develop our youth and spread awareness about HIV/ AIDS. Having a staff on staff soccer match has become a customary activity between the two organisations and along with our kids playing in each other’s tournaments and our joint events, contributes to a strong relationship between us.

As both organisations host international volunteers throughout the year, each team is made up of local and international players as well as a combination of male and female players; ensuring sound fair-play! The match was held at the City Lads Grounds in New Brighton, which is the home ground for most of the staff at both organisations. So, even the venue gave each team a “home-advantage”!

Because a lot of the United Through Sport SA staff have previously volunteered at GRS and because of the close relationship between the two NGOs, it is always such an exciting game to watch ; with spectators cheering both teams on and torn between who they want to win. The United Through Sport South Africa Director, Nick Mould, was feeling a bit anxious this time around though; he was under the impression that his team might just struggle without him on the field, having scored two goals himself in his last game. With a 4-2 win, the United Through Sport SA staff showed Mr Mould that his boat can still sail well without its captain on board with United Through Sport Life Skills Coach, Shankie, scoring the two winning goals.

It is always great to maintain such relationships between organisations, especially since we all share a common vision and goal to develop the youth in our disadvantaged communities. Being a sport-based organisation, it is also important for the United Through Sport SA staff to socialise with colleagues from other NGOs on and off the field. If we work together, we should also play together! This also teaches the children the value of sharing and working with those around you, instead of competing for resources.