the village of hope seeks to help children infected or affected by hiv, aids and tb in two different ways: we have a 9 bed children's unit to support those infected by hiv and aids and we also run a community-based sports and lifeskills outreach in the informal settlements and squatter camps each afternoon.

this blog has been set up to allow the key members of the team at the village of hope to share their thoughts, photos and experiences as we work in the community of grabouw in south africa

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

health awareness at our sports outreach

talitha teaching oral hygiene
as part of the link that we have with the HAN university in arnhem in holland we are blessed with new students every 6 months or so, who come to complete part of their studies with us at the village of hope, over a period of either 5 or 10 months. providing help to maz in the children's unit via social and physio students and to us with our sports outreach in the community via their sports management students.

we run our sports outreach in 5 of the poorest areas of grabouw each afternoon, this sports based ,bible and lifeskills programme uses football and netball to interact with the children, giving us a base to provide them with some basic life skills, such as working together which brings self respect and respect for others as well as allowing us to link that with a suitable story from the bible which shows the children that God is interested in their lives and can help them when they are faced with different issues during their home, school and social lives.

during the last few years the dutch students have been setting up a life style programme which teaches children basic health awareness topics, such as teeth cleaning, hand washing etc and over the last few weeks we have incorporated this programme into our sports outreach, which now provides the children with a wider knowledge for their lives.

this is working very well, although our hour long sessions are a little bit crammed so we are needing to spend slightly longer with the children, which is no bad thing!
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownApril 13, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    Hi Rob and Emily - it's Fiona, Nicky's sister in law - we met at lunch at the Du Toits farm. Still very keen to help out if we can with JDI funds and willing hands, please can you send me an email address to figroenewald@gmail.com?
    I essentially need 3-4 concise paragraphs on the project with all salient info, and some supporting pics. Good to end with short term and long term needs. We can then get it on the JDI website and include a link to it in future emails to group leaders. We can also link it to our facebook page.
    Look forward to hearing from you!
    Regards
    Fiona

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