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

Nike and Roger Federer Support UTS

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United Through Sport South Africa is proud to be one of the first 26 (NIKE)RED grant recipients. This fund is managed by the King Baudouin Foundation and aims to support our new Junior School of Excellence Program with a particular focus on the HIV / AIDS awareness life skills elements of the program.

As a fitting launch to the program Roger Federer Foundation (supported by Nike) also donated 500 t-shirts with “I am Tomorrow’s Future” written across the chest. The JSE has the sole purpose of developing these young children holistically, to give them a brighter future so the t-shirts were very apt.

With UTS being a sport based organisation, it is great to have support from Roger Federer and from Nike, which is by far the most popular sports brand in the township communities. Nike believes in the power of unleashing human potential, both on the field and in life; which is exactly what we strive to do in all our programs, making the relationship between UTS and (NIKE)RED a fitting partnership. The investment (NIKE)RED is making in our Junior School of Excellence will go a long way to realise the potential of our beneficiaries, grooming them to be tomorrow’s future.

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.

Paul Paddles Hard for UTS

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A big thank you goes out to Paul Young from Tunbridge Wells and his team, ‘Apalala’ (means dragon in Chinese), for raising money for United Through Sport at the Bewl Water Dragon Boat Festival in Sept 2011. More than 800 people competed in an amazing display of paddle power, excitement and fun. Since the event began in 1998 well over £1million has been raised for 175 local and international charities.

Get involved at next years event in Bristol.
Taking place on Sunday 23rd Sept 2012 at Baltic Wharf.

This is a brilliant way for teams to have fun and raise money for United Through Sport. People do not have to be fitness fanatics or marathon runners to compete in a team – it’s all about timing and teamwork! Team members aged from 16 to 60+ can paddle and raise money. We suggest teams raise at least £1,750. Each team has 16 paddlers and a drummer in each race but can have 20 or more in the team to include extra paddlers and raise more funds.

To see further details go to www.funraisers.org.uk and click on the event in the dropdown menu. Entry fee for each team is £350 – that’s about £20 per paddler. We would be delighted to have your team involved. Let us know if you are thinking of entering a team so we can keep you fully informed.

Alternatively you can call Pip Lightbody on 07092 222066 for further information.

Come and get involved for a great day out!

Robert Laing takes on 10 Olympic Sports

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Ex-Serviceman Robert Laing is taking on the Gold Challenge and has chosen to tackle 10 sports. Over the coming months he will be training and be coached in ten Olympic sports in order to raise as much money as possible for United Through Sport. In a neat twist Robert is looking to compete for his local clubs in the sports he takes on.

Robert has been training committedly and has already joined local volleyball, rowing, fencing, football and table tennis clubs in a bid to complete his challenge. He is planning to take on many more Olympic and Paralympic sports over the coming months and hopes to increase his challenge from 10 to 20 sports if fundraising goes well.

Robert said, “As an ex-serviceman from The Life Guards I have played many sports in my time and done a few charity events, Gold Challenge seemed unique to me though! I have decided to take the challenge for 10 sports with a view to increasing it to 20 depending on sponsors and donations. The clubs that I am training with have been most helpful in allowing me to train with them!”

A massive thanks to Bob for his efforts and if you wanted to support him in his challenge then check out his fundraising page at the following link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ROBERTLAING

With less than a Year to Go until the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Gold Challenge is the way for the whole country to get involved and join in the excitement of London 2012. The new charity challenge, partnered with Team GB and British Olympic Association, challenges participants to take on Olympic and Paralympic sports to raise money for one of its 125 charity partners.

Challengers sign up for free and choose their challenge or create their own. Challenges include the Olympic Sport Challenge, where participants take on 5 – 30 Olympic & Paralympic sports, the 2012 km Challenge where challengers must cover 2012 km (individually or collectively) in one or more of a group of Olympic & Paralympic sports and the Family Activity Challenge which encourages families to learn Olympic sports together.

If you fancy getting involved then register your details on this page and join our sporty community: http://www.goldchallenge.org/morecharities/unitedthroughsport

Equipment Donations in Ghana

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Everyone here at United Through Sport Ghana would like to take this opportunity in saying a big thank you to six previous volunteers for their immense contribution to our Mass Participation Programme:

Adina Henderson – Tennis Equipment
Toby Lane – Tennis Equipment
Tom Wilson – Football Kit
James Shimmin – Football Kit
Benjamin Odgers – Football Kit
Sam Yates – Rugby Equipment
Adina Henderson and Toby Lane donated tennis rackets, tennis balls and trainers to the Accra Tennis Club, where they volunteered while out in Ghana.

Tom Wilson, James Shimmin and Benjamin Odgers donated football kit and football boots to the United Through Sport football team in Teshie.

Sam Yates donated rugby shirts, rugby boots, rugby balls and cones to the schools and clubs he coached with in Nima, Accra.

Funding is a big issue for Ghanaian sports clubs and schools, with many clubs and schools only having just enough equipment and resources to survive. Donations from everyone are a massive help and will go a long way in helping children succeed in sport.