world cup based sports outreach

with the world cup underway, we decided to stage a tournament for a hundred of the local children living in the various communities of Grabouw. these are some of the most needy children in our town, and with their home lives so unstable, it’s nice to offer them a break from the hardships they face every single day.

we divided our existing 9 sports clubs into 9 teams that each represented one of the countries playing in the world cup. we also taught them some information about the country they were representing in the week leading up to the tournament.

then, on the morning of Friday 4^th July, we held the contest at a local school’s playing field. the weather was wild, and setting up was made difficult due to the strong wind, but with the help of both dedicated volunteers (emma, shae, aubrei, polly, jenny and barbara) and of course our sports mentors, we were soon ready to play.

the sun had now come out, and the sight of a hundred kids doing one of the things they enjoy most was heartwarming. the competition was intense, but always played in a fun spirit and most importantly they had a great time. food was provided by barbara, as well as another local school cooking lunch for all the kids.

unlike the current world cup brazil came out as the eventual winners, and the enthusiasm of the kids ensures that there will be many more days like this!

written by josh holtrum

sports outreach ventures overseas!

tim training the community leaders

we are sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so, much of that was down to the fact that tim and maz were taking our sports outreach programme to madagascar where they trained 21 local church leaders in the nuances of the sports outreach that we have been running from the village of hope since late 2008.

community leaders learning the sports outreach via
training games

this post serves as a simple update on that trip and provides news about the new clubs that have already started since tim and maz returned to south africa.

'we flew into madagascar via a two stop flight in south africa and then on via a further one hour internal flight to the coastal town of toamasina which lies on the east coast of the fourth biggest island and what some call the eighth continent in the world.

new saturday club set up near 'love n care' base

our days were busy serving with a project called 'love n care ministries' who had visited our thembalitsha projects earlier in the year and where the relationship was formed. 'love n care' run a wonderful little school on the outskirts of the town, have a ministry in a local prison (more of which later), run campus ministry and provide food for street children in the dock area of toamasina. they are also establishing an orphanage in the bush area along the canals which pan out down the indian ocean.

community leader running a new club at the bethany school

the main reason for the visit was to share the sports programme which we have run over the last five years here in grabouw, the programme is loosely based on the ububalo model which uses football as a base to introduce lifeskills and bible teaching, we have adapted it to suit our needs in grabouw and it was great to share it with some enthusiastic leaders in madagascar.

we held the training an the grounds of a local Presbyterian church and the training ran over two days and provided their leaders with the materials to set up their own projects. as we said the course was attended by 21 local leaders, two of whom travelled from the bush village where they will be setting up their own club.

theo sharing a lifeskill and bible story following
a sports outreach with the children

one of the highlights of the trip was to play a match between those that had been on the course and the inmates of the local prison where 'love n care' have set up a permanent church building in which they hold sunday services, mid week bible studies and skills training with the prisoners. unfortunately our mishmash of a team lost 0-2 but the prisoners were so happy for us to come an play a game against them that the score line didn't really matter.

madagascar sits within the top (or bottom dependent on how you view the stats) 10 poorest nations in the world, there is so much need there and people really do live a hand to mouth existence. it really was a privilege to go and share some of the skills that we have with these very open but somewhat held back people and to see them get excited about using sport as a means to engage with the poorest of the poor children in a positive, non threatening way whilst building relationships into the community and taking the church outside the building.

since we have returned the guys have already started two clubs, some of the photos show them with the children, and we are looking forward to hearing how the village of hope sports outreach programme will provide new hope to more and more children as more clubs are set up during the next weeks.

our 9th sports outreach starts to provide themba to those in hillside!

following quickly on from our eighth club comes the news that we have been able to set up, or at least reestablish, our ninth sports club. this 'new' club is run in an area called 'hillside' and whilst this was an area where we have worked before we did have to merge two clubs together about two years ago and the children from hillside were expected to be picked up and transported to siteview.

although siteview is less that a mile away from hillside and should be within walking distance for those children they are from different cultural backgrounds and felt slightly 'excluded' from the merged club. therefore it is with great joy that we have been able to reestablish their original club, which has been running for a couple of weeks now, and we are seeing lots of boys and girls attend this club which takes place each and every monday afternoon.

we want to thank themba (yes that's the name of one of our mentors..obviously meaning 'hope') for his enthusiasm for reestablishing this club which is in the area where he lives and therefore he is continuing to be a role model to the younger children who attend his club...well done themba!

our 8th sports club starts.....in the rain!

aphiwe leading the first soccer based lifeskills club
in marikana informal settlement

there is such need in our community and it would be easy to have a scatter gun approach to all the issues that we see and are confronted with on a daily basis, however we are keen to ensure the sustainability of any project that we start and therefore planning and preparation has been the key to our success. 

aphiwe (front) with the boys at our new sports outreach

this approach can be seen as we have developed our sports outreach over the last few years, and within this blog post we are pleased to announce that not only have we taken on two new sports mentors (local young adults from the communities we work in who provide that peer to peer education) but have increasing our clubs from the first one we set up in october 2008 which met the needs of about 20 boys aged about 13 to now our eighth club which sees us work over 400 children each week from the youngest under three's all the way through to boys and girls aged 15 and 16 years.

the new club was the dream of a new mentor (aphiwe) which has been set up in the marikana informal settlement, which sits between two of our existing clubs in north pineview and iraq. aphiwe is being supported by three of our long term mentors as he develops his skills and encourages the children who live around his home to come join the club which is taking place each and every wednesday afternoon.

unfortunately the weather didn't play ball for the first week session, however the overcast and rainy conditions didn't stop around 15 boys attending the new club and we are excited to see if we could introduce a netball club to engage with the local girls at the same location.

the success of our clubs is proof that we provide the knowledge and skills to enable the mentors to run their own clubs, in fact this is the second club where the mentors have taken on the whole running of the club without the need for us to attend at all, this is fantastic news and shows that the input that we have had with these mentors (who have all attended our various clubs as children themselves) is working and sustainable!

video of our sports fun day at a local creche

its amazing the relationships that develop from the work we do within the community via our sports outreach, rainbow smiles club and being involved with thembacare, one such relationship led us to put on a simple fundraising event for a creche up in the siteview area of grabouw last saturday morning. 

the leaders of the creche were so impressed with the dedication of our sports outreach programme which we run each monday afternoon near their building,  that they approached us to see if we couldn't help them with organising a sports day for their three to five year olds. 

josh and jasper grasped the opportunity with both hands and set up a wonderful event for the children, over 40 children took part in various games, including an 'egg and spoon' race, a sack race and games involving knocking down bottles of water with a tennis ball. all of the games were designed so that each child participated in every event and as they were split into different teams there were no winners or losers, just lots of happy children.

jasper put together this short video clip of our village of hope team working together, please click on this link and take a moment to watch us in action. thanks goes out to some of our international staff for giving up their time to make this a great event for the kids and supporting the work of this little creche.

  

called to be his hands and feet.....

there are some days, and even some weeks, when you feel so overwhelmed by the plight of literally thousands of people who live in our town that you really do wonder what difference we are really making in the grand scheme of things.

I have had many such days since first visiting grabouw back in 2006 and even more since our move out to set up the village of hope in october 2008. there aren't many times when I actually get time to compile my thoughts however looking back through this blog I did managed to capture the thoughts of one of those days in may 2012, have a read of that post by clicking on this link, and today was another one of those days and I will try to put into words the type of day it was.

the day started in pretty much the same way as normal weekdays, we all met together at 8.15am at our team meeting where we discussed the things that we were involved in from yesterday and prepared ourselves for the day ahead, asking God to guide us as we complete the jobs that needed to be done to ensure we run a productive and well governed project, however it wasn't until around 3pm that I ventured out into the community to pick up one of our sports mentors who was going to help shana run our netball outreach in the iraq informal settlement....and that's when stuff started to impact me.

after the morning meeting most days I seem to be running from one meeting to another, completing a report for some funder or another or replying to an urgent email from a colleague who needs answers to a question, however this afternoon as I dropped the mentor at the club in one of the poorest communities we work in I stopped to talk to a lady who had called my name.

after getting out of the car, making sure I didn't step in anything untoward! and having a quick chat with the xhosa lady who had called to me I noticed a young girl sitting in the doorway of her house, a small tin shack, around 3 meters square with no water or electricity, she seemed to be caring for a small child and it wasn't till I approached her that I noticed a dilapidated wheelchair standing outside of the home.

it turns out that this young girl is 13 years old and can't walk, she seemed bright enough in herself but to see her shuffling around on the mud floor of her home compelled me to pray for her, asking God to restore all that was broken in her life, not only her physical condition but anything that was causing her to miss out on the life that God had originally had planned for her.

looking back at this interaction I know that this young girl was one of many who I passed today, but it was only when I stopped and took some time to understand her life, showed the love that Jesus calls us to show towards our neighbours that I was able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to her this afternoon.

I didn't have all the answers but within 10 minutes I managed to make a phone call to a local school who takes in children with physical problems (I am hopeful that this will be one of the answers to our prayers) but the best part was that I was able to pray with her and ask God our father to restore her and I just spent time sitting with her, engaging with her, even though we couldn't speak the same language.

its only when reflecting on what impacted me most that I realise that my (or even your) calling isn't to save the whole world, country, province or town, its literally to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but what does that mean I hear you ask?

well Jesus was both fully human and full God, here on earth he was only able to impact communities one or two people at a time (OK I know he feed both 5,000 and 4,000 people with some loaves and fishes but most of his ministry was to individuals) and that's what I was able to do today.

it was still a hard day, the sights, sounds and smells that surround us impact us in ways that you can never know unless you have visited but as I sit here typing this post I feel that although it was a tough day God was with me and pointed me towards that young girl who he so cares about and who's story I shared with you.

help from our friends from dallas

clearing the old tin roof

last week we hosted our first major mission team in the new short term volunteers accommodation, the teams who had used it before were mainly couples or families so it was good to see that the building held up and was enjoyed by the guys from dallas.

during the week they helped us with some jobs around the village of hope, sanding down the new board walks, chopping up wood to ensure we have enough dried for next winter, sorting donations and playing with the children in the unit. they were also able to help out with our community work, planning and running our rainbow smiles support group, assisting at our sports outreach and making house visits with our thembacare home based careworkers, they also joined us for our weekly thembacare service which was a joy to behold.

after the installation of the new roof..

on friday the men helped to put a sail sheet onto one of our discharged children's homes (see photos) which was a real blessing to him and his grandmother and at lunchtime they joined us on the soup run and prayed for the soup given out to the creches and children in the community.

it was a blessing to know this team and we pray that they will continue to be a help to our other thembalitsha projects that they are visiting this week, we hope they will make as much of an impact at those projects as they did with us in grabouw.

winning in many ways...!

the team, and supporters before the big games

the 9th of august is a special day in south africa when we think about the wonderful women of the country, it's a public holiday and many things are done to celebrate women, however for myself, josh, seb and our sports mentors there was no lay in as we were up by 6am collecting the mentors from their homes in the formal and informal settlements before we made the hour long journey to worcester where we were taking part in a soccer tournament organised by solid rock.

kick off!

we arrived ready for registration at 8am after a fantastic drive through the snowing mountains and by 9.30 the event was well underway with teams from the whole of the boland area competing in various age groups from under 9's right the way through to under 19's. we had entered a team made up of our under 17 mentors with a few supporters joining us for the ride!....unfortunately we were placed into the under 19 competition but this didn't deter our team of five players with two subs, who were wearing some new football boots donated by tony allen, who relished the challenge of competing against the older boys (men)!

the ground with snowy mountains in the background

during our first two games we looked very nervous and although we led both games we ended up drawing those 2-2 which was a little disappointing, however it was a round robin tournament which meant we were going to play another six games against the other teams.

over the next six games we went from strength to strength, coming back from 2-3 down to win 4-3 and then thumping the next three teams 5-1, 6-1, 7-2, we finished off the tournament against the two strongest (other than us) teams and won those 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. it was a truly wonderful display with the team playing so well together with sterling performances from the goal keeper through our back line up to our amazing goal scorers.

our star player of the tournament 

there was a very strange scoring system which in principle worked well, where teams we given beans instead of points, ten beans for a win,  five for a draw and one for turning up (losing!), however there were other ways to 'win/collect' beans, such as collecting litter, sitting in straight lines for lunch etc, as i say the principle of the system was great, however the application left a little to be desired and we some how missed out on winning the whole competition via this system.

that said our boys were complimented on their sporting behavior and although i am biased we were the team of the tournament in all aspects of the day and i can only praise the way the boys took the news that they hadn't won the prized kit which we were playing for.

there was a silver lining to the day as we did come away with one highlight which was the fact that our youngest player was voted senior player of the tournament, not bad for a 16 year old pitting his skills against 20 year olds, however his skill levels were outstanding and it wasn't a surprise that he won the overall prize!

a great day was had by all, the day was well organised and although we arrived back in grabouw over 12 hours later, most of the boys slept all the way home, it was great spending time with them and seeing the skills, both football skills and the lifeskills that we encourage each and every day during our outreaches coming to the fore.....a big thank you josh for joining me in the driving, you were really a star!

small steps make such a difference.....

as many of you will be aware thembalitsha is the xhosa translation of the english words 'new hope' and its amazing to work with a charity where we see new hope being provided in various different ways via our seven projects throughout the western cape.

it's easy to miss the stories of hope that surround us each and everyday so we have made a point of sharing some of these stories around the morning meeting table as we start each day, one as an encouragement of the things that we have seen from the days before and one to challenge us to see the small things that bring hope to those we are working with.

the new hope we see at the village of hope comes in many different forms and expressions, some are obvious as we see the development of the children who are placed with us, be that in their physical, emotional or even spiritual growth or less obvious as we see the slight changes in behaviors of the children that attend our daily sports outreach clubs.

the story of hope that i want to share on this post is one that i saw in the life of a 21 year old boy who has attended our club in the waterworks informal settlement since we set it up over four years ago, he has gone from a child attending the club to a sports mentor who has led the club on his own or with one of his big best friends with little input from us other than him attending our weekly planning sessions.

anyway he is keen to extend his studies at a local university in cape town as he comes to the end of his compulsory education but there is the small issues around the university application process, this might not seem like newsworthy information and something that should take up space on our blog, but just to be able to complete an online application isn't as easy as many of us would think.

take a moment to think about it, to complete an online application you firstly need to have to have access to a computer, which also has to have access to a phone line and most importantly of all have an electricity supply, basic stuff i know but for thousands of children in our town this something that isn't available in their own homes, and that's just for starters as we progressed through the online application form it asked for the young man's email address, again something that we take for granted but for him was a new concept. it was amazing just to be able to help set him up with his own google account, using his full xhosa name to gain a personal address that many of us with familiar european names would only dream of!

there were other highlights that included submitting a postal address, living in a tin shack in an informal settlement with no street names or even postmen is a challenge, what was he to put? this story could run and run from filling in his household income to thinking about transport to and from the university or whether we were too far away for him to be hosted on the campus were real challenges, but we managed to get the application through with the only further small problem of the online payment option (the only option by the way), which needed to be filled in with a credit card, something that this boy and his father don't have so we will have to use mine for the moment and trust he pays me the R100 application fee to cover my cost!

this is a very simple story and only part of his walk, it was indeed one small step for this guy but one giant leap as he seeks to better himself and the prospects of his family and one are where we can see new hope budding in the amazing children we are working with at our sports outreach.

its all about the training...

pierre shares some info on the detailed training document

we are in the middle of our winter school holiday season at the moment and for our sports outreach team this is normally a time for some much needed rest. however this year we wanted to make the most of the time that we have with our sports mentors, who are all very enthusiastic young people who are still in school, so this was the ideal time to 'up skill' them with some new training and ideas around how we deliver our programme and engage with the local children who attend our daily clubs

some of the team in their new jersey kits and boots!

since starting our sports outreach in 2008 we have based our programmes around the already existing ubabalo soccer programme, which was created for the 2010 world cup, with some tweaks by our volunteers and dutch students over the last few years, however more recently we have been building great relationships with one of the guys who created the original ubabalo sports programme.

therefore it was a true blessing to have pierre and three of his team come up and join us at the elgin country club, which provided a splendid backdrop, to the two days of training and giving us new material which will hone our outreach to the 250 or so children who attend our clubs.

it was all a little daunting for our sports mentors who were encouraged to show off their existing skills on the soccer pitch and deliver a new training session, which we had prepared in the classroom via some team building and interactive video, to the group whilst receiving some 360 degree feed back on the things they did well and those things that they perhaps needed to work on, but they

it was a time for them to bond together as a team, have fun and receive some goodies which we had been saving up for such a time as this. we must thank franny black for the tracksuits which we gave out on the second day as well as lance and travis who will be delighted to know that the soccer boots which they bought over from canada were so well received by the mentors.....thanks guys.

new sports shoes for our mentors

guys and girls with their new sports shoes

well once again a week has passed since the last blog post, things are so crazy busy here at the minute and what with that and the Easter break, during which time myself and maz celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (yes i know we don't look that old!), i haven't had time to update on all that's been happening so here goes with some latest news.

this afternoon i was able to bless our 12 sports mentors (yes i know there's only 11 in the photo but one couldn't make it) by buying them some much needed sports footwear, this was due to a wonderful donor (you know who you are and the team say a big thank you) from the USA who after visiting our sports clubs late last year wanted to ensure that the guys had proper shoes, or even a pair of shoes, as they coach the other younger children.

the shopping trip was a bit of a whirl wind as i gave the boys and girls free reign of a couple of sports shops, however i did set some boundaries and made sure that the shoes were within budget and suitable for playing soccer. some tried to get some fancy school shoes, others wanted proper football boots with studs in, however we compromised on a couple of requests and it seems that they were happy with their purchases.

it is so great to be able to bless these amazing mentors, who coach at our sports clubs/outreach every afternoon and to ensure they are fully kitted out is so important as they share their skills with others!

another successful sports saturday...

last saturday morning, into the early afternoon, we held our most recent sports saturday, this time with help from our german students who are busy building the extension to our children's unit acting as managers for the boys soccer and girls netball teams.

trying to get everyone's attention

once again the event was held at the magnificent elgin country club, with the wonderful scenery providing a stunning backdrop to the games being played by over 180 children who were split into 25 teams, playing soccer and netball under the guidance of our dutch student, eric, who did a sterling job in managing the other volunteers and local sports mentors.

heniz the manager of one of the 25 teams!

there isn't much that hasn't been said before about these amazing events (click on these links to see other posts around our sports saturdays, nov 2012, oct 2011, mar 2011) however it must be said that it is one of the longest but most exciting days, the joy on the children's faces as they board the 65 seater coaches for the short journey to the club, the fun that is had by playing sport against other children from the 6 different clubs we run and the 'thank you's' that we receive whilst giving out prizes or for the meal which ends the day are sights and sounds to behold.

the amazing volunteers for the day
(minus a couple of local girls and ladies who
had already left!)

after the children have been safely returned home it has become the custom for sports mentors and the volunteers to play a large soccer match, unfortunately this time there weren't enough german's make up a team, so we played europe verse africa, with a few ringers from the USA and grabouw making up the european team. for once it was nice to be on the winning side especially to come from 0-2 down to beat our wonderful sports mentors (peer educators) who really should have won!

i am hoping to put up a few more photos but i have included a couple that were taken of myself trying to sort the kids as they arrived on the buses and then a team picture, less some local help, of the helpers who made this day possible.

a new area for our sports outreach

first week at our new north pineview club

you may be aware that we run sports outreach clubs to over 250 children each week and over the last 18 months we have been working at a second local farm providing our life skills and health awareness via sport programme to their children, however due to other commitments, such as school work and family commitments we have only been getting between five to 10 children at each club.

we know that each child is special and needs to be given the same chance but we had to reevaluate our resource and we felt that traveling over 50 minutes there and back on a thursday afternoon was not a good use of time, petrol or money so it is with sadness that we say goodbye to those wonderful children. we trust that our impact will be long lasting and if we were able to employ a full-time sports outreach coordinator we are sure that this could open up again.

but as with anything as one door closes then another opens and our sports mentors from the informal areas of town were keen to start another club to serve the children from the zola/north pineview end of the informal settlement which is continuing to extend due to the building works in rooidakke.

therefore it is great news to announce that we now have a new club, which has been running for two weeks and is already attracting over 40 children, the space we run the club from is very limited and has been littered with glass and dog poo however there are patches of grass which we thank God for!

We pray that these children will benefit from the weekly clubs which are designed to provide them with some basic physical exercise, as well as providing them with skills which will help them to grow into well balanced human beings who are keen to work together for a brighter south africa.

a quick catch up!

ukuqala3 richtfest lead by heinz wolf 

firstly i am really sorry about the awful layout of this post, i have been playing around with the photos and text for ages and this is the best that blogger can do at the moment!

so much is happening at the moment, which i am sure you can imagine with 28 students and their tutors from stuttgart who are completing the amazing changes to the buildings here at the village of hope but we have also been joined by our new dutch sports student and we have received some very special gifts which are making a difference to both the lives of the children who live with us and those who we help in the community. what follows is a very short catch up on all that is happening, complete with photos to give some visual perspective!

phillip aka roger visits from switzerland,
with friend (chris)

we have received visits from some amazing people, not only did phillip, commonly known as roger federer, who was one of our first volunteers over 4 and a half years ago, come and visit us he also got involved in our sports outreach where we were able to use 40 of the 100 small footballs which were donated by travelstart.

rodnights visit
(complete with german underpants!)

visits from pop stars!

maz received a visit from 3 children that she used to work with when she was a classroom support in england and some friends who we met last year, via my parents, came to visit from sweden, two members from the amazing 'wholehearted' band came to visit to chat around how they can get further involved in our projects here in grabouw they were swamped by our house moms who revere these people as true hero's (think the boot might be on the other foot if truth be told!!!)....yes it has been a busy time.

the new rocking horse
...thanks matt and katt!

matt and katt donated a wonderful outside rocking horse in memory of assi and the children have been enjoying riding that for the first time this week, thanks guys it is a real hit with the children and its hard to keep the house moms off of it too!

following the departure of yoram and annemiek we have been running short of support at our sports outreach, however this week we have been joined by eric, our latest student from the HAN university in holland who will be with us for the next five months, you might be able to see his tall frame in one of the photos!

the ukuqala2 house gets plastered!

kids playing with new footballs and
eric the new HAN student

and last but not least not only have the building works moved on at a pace but we held our very own ukuqala3 richtfest, read more around this german tradition here, which celebrated the completion of the roof section of the new children's bedrooms. the toilets at ukuqala2 are coming along well and the walls inside the main ukuqala2 building are receiving their sand, lime and straw rendering so we will soon be able lay the floor and fit the kitchen in readiness for our first family of volunteers!

me and maz sharing at the richtfest...
(i know the socks!)

i think that's it for the mo, sorry there are so many stories in one post but i think that gives you a flavour of the things that are going on at the moment.

first person to sit in the ukuqala2 toilet!

sports outreach year ends at the beach....

kids eating pancakes at strand

our rooidakke and iraq clubs at gordons bay

the children who attend our sports outreach programme are now on their summer holiday's and to celebrate the end of another amazing year we have taken around  70 of the 250 children who attend our seven weekly clubs to the beach over the last four afternoons...

...i know that sounds idyllic but to have the worry to ensure that not only do the children travel safely down the long and winding mountain pass that we have to negotiate between grabouw and the seaside town's of strand and gordon's bay but also make sure that they all have a great time playing in the water, which for some it might be the first time they have ever visited, then its not all plan sailing!

beach 'water' football!

however everything went well, the weather was fantastic, the sea a perfect temperature for the kids to enjoy a dip and food provided by the dutch students, pancakes (pannenkoeken), which for some children were the first time they have eaten such a delight was all very special.

our amazing HAN students yoram and annemeik did such a good job throughout the last five month and it was great to share this time with you guys, we will miss you both loads! thanks must also extend to our longer term volunteers, tim and jacque who made sure that the children enjoyed their special days.

digging holes to holland!

it was a great end of the year for our sports mentors as well, we have been working hard with these guys as they serve us so well through the year, you guys rock.....we will now be taking a well earned break from the sports outreach until the middle of january!........

pancakes on the beach!

....more news will follow then as we seek to extend the work we do into new areas to bring 'new hope through sports' into our poorest communities of grabouw.

our biggest sports saturday yet!

fun at the huge netball tournament

on saturday we hosted our biggest sports day ever at the elgin country club. our weekly sports outreach clubs have been growing in number over the last 6 months and the investment we have made with our sports mentors being a huge influence on that. as has become custom we like to bring all the children that we work with at the different clubs together for a whole morning of fun and games, based around our soccer (football) and netball teams.

it's a goal!

i hope that i'm not taking anything away from any of the other sports saturday's that we have run by saying that this was not only the biggest, with a total of 198 children attending, around 140 was our previous highest, but also the best organised. as with all things you hope to improve and some of the lessons we have learnt in the past were overcome and even with a smaller team of volunteers compared to the past we were able to host a bigger event which is a real testimony to those who helped.

awaiting the prize giving

a big thank you must be given to the dutch students who are on placements with various projects around grabouw via the HAN university, especially yoram who is our sports intern and who took the main lead in organising the event. our volunteers at the village of hope also helped and were assisted by our wonderful sports mentors (our local 16-20 year old's who assist us at our weekly clubs) in managing teams,  refereeing the games or keeping an overview on the whole day.

the winners!

winning girls receive their funky sportswear

we took a different approach to the way that we ran the soccer tournament  having all ages playing together instead of an under 13 and under 15 tournament, and with boys being split up from their normal weekly clubs to play in mixed teams. this worked really well, uniting teams, old boys caring for the younger ones, and working together as they played. we had a total of 16 soccer teams split into 4 leagues with the winners of each group playing in the semi final and then final.

headbands for all!

the girls played in their normal weekly groups but with over 60 girls playing it needed to be organised and refereed really well and we want to thank lori and cozi for sorting that with the help of jaqui.

in the past we had used just one bus to transport the children from the various areas around grabouw, with the two sets of farm children arriving via their own transport, but such was the numbers seen on saturday that we had to set up a second bus to ensure that the children had seats. as you can imagine there was such joy as we firstly pick up and then journeyed to the wonderful country club, many of the children visiting for the first time.

thankfully we were blessed with no major injuries but with our system of indemnity and contact forms we are always ready for the worst......the only down side of that system is that some of the children had forgotten or had incomplete forms which meant disappointment for them as we were unable to ensure their safety whilst in our care!

a great day was had by all, with the winning sides being blessed with some amazing sportswear which was donated by our latest american mission team..we hope the photos will show some of that joy!  

the kids enjoyed a russian and chips (pork sausage) before they left and the day culminated in a big braai at the country club for all our helpers, and even the house moms were able to join us with the children in our care from the village of hope. the weather played its part and we thank God for that too.....

.....bring on the next one in 2013....can it become any bigger or better run?

food need outweighs flashy headgear!

happy but hungry mentors

late last week i was able to bless two of our sports mentors with a wonderful gift that was donated from our latest team who visited us from the united states. the gift was a sports cap with built in flashlight which is not only a cool accessory, maz has one so as not to wake me when she is reading at night!, but will make such a difference for our two mentors as they struggle to complete their school homework in their dark and electricity free tin shack in the iraq informal settlement in grabouw.

delivering our life skills in iraq informal settlement today

the boys were very pleased to receive this gift but once i had presented them with their cool hats, see photo, they asked if there was any way that i could help them out as they didn't have any, yes any, food in their home for that evening meal..........it suddenly stuck me that although they received a $30 cap which would help them in the future their immediate need was to put some food on the table!

engaging with their peers, so cool!

as a charity thembalitsha don't encourage us to provide hand outs, we are seeking to provide new hope via empowering people to a place of self reliance but what could i do, what would you do?, leave the boys with a wonderful new cap but with empty stomachs?......no i took them into town and purchased a few tin cans of meat, some eggs, fresh milk, sugar and paraffin to lite the stove, God calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves and i couldn't face the thought of leaving them with nothing knowing that my cupboards were full of food and a nice cauliflower cheese bake that maz had made for me to microwave as she was out for the evening!

today those two same boys were back helping with our sports outreach, they told me that their hats were great and that they could now read some of the educational magazines i had left with them, and that their mother had received her pay cheque and they had some food for their family....at least for this week!

new sport support from the HAN students

new sports students with the kids from
site view and snake park sports club

over the last few years we have been blessed with a plethora of sports students who have been placed with us at the village of hope sports outreach project, it has been my honor to be the 'practical supervisor' for these students from the HAN university in nijmegen, holland, and we have not only been able to continue but also expand and extend our sports outreach, via better planning schedules and documentation, thus ensuring that the project continues long after the dutch students have returned home. this has been due to the work that we have developed for our sports mentors (peer educators) and this is something that the new students will continue to work towards.

this afternoon we held our first sports outreach with the new students, yoram and anna, who will be working with us for the next five months. the field was packed with children, some of them much too young to be able to understand the topic for the day, which was all based around planning for the future and how being prepared is an important lifeskill to learn, however the 24 boys and 20 girls aged 9-15 who attended the club had a wonderful afternoon.

the photo was taken right at the end of the session when at least half of the children, and our wonderful care worker, lindi, from thembacare who comes to help run the netball with the xhosa speaking girls, had gone home. however i hope you can see the joy on the faces of the children that we work with on a monday afternoon from the site view and snake park areas of the townships here in grabouw. the photo also shows themba, standing to the top left of the photo, who is our peer educator for that club....unfortunately michael (our other mentor) was late home from school and could make it today!

tomorrow we will be working in iraq with our further clubs taking place in rooidakke, waterworks, and the two farms on wednesday and thursday afternoons. please keep an eye out for the future news of the sports outreach we do in grabouw.

helping with some electric homework!

one of our sports mentors (rasta) with a
well worn soccer ball...anyone willing to help?

what started out as a simple visit to our sports mentors to inform them that the rain had washed out any chance of running our sports outreach in the iraq/zwelitsha informal settlement this afternoon turned into an opportunity to help two young school girls with their homework.

after chatting with the guys around a very warm wood fire about the need for some more footballs to be donated for the sports outreach over a cup of ricoffe i was asked to take their sister and a friend to the local library to enable them to do their homework, when enquiring as to what their homework was about i was told that they needed to find out about electricity.....some what ironic that the tin shack that they live in doesn't have access to electricity, or basic sanitation for that matter, but i thought that it could be an opportunity for me to take them to visit the very local, and even more ironic, water turbine powered electricity plant which lies around 2kms from their home.

chilling round an indoor fire with coffee

the girls enjoying a coffee at the visitor centre!

so we made the short trip to the palmiet dam power station, run by eskom, the same company who have completed our recent upgrades at the village of hope, and after a few minutes we made ourselves welcome into their 1st world visitor centre where the girls were presented with a pack of glossy brochures informing them about how electric is made.

back home with their info packs to help with their homework

we were also shown a short video giving some depth to the setting up of such a power station in one of the worlds 6 floral kingdoms, the cape fynbos, under the kogelberg biosphere....all this was a little overwhelming to the two girls who had only asked for a lift to the library where they would have had to scan books and paid for photocopies of info which really was on their (and their school mates) doorsteps, after a cup of coffee at the centre we returned to their tin shack, to a warm fire but alas no electricity for them to enjoy!

sometimes one has to just connect a few dots to make the day for people, if only we would take the time to do this (even me sitting here in south africa, a missionary to this land) for our fellow man.