Developing Vulnerable Kids Thru Sport South Africa

We are excited to tell you about Zolisa Faba; a 14 year old boy from our Mass Participation Programme. Zolisa progressed into our Senior School of Excellence Program with a scholarship to Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg. He has now completed his first year at Jeppe, and what a change we have seen in him!

For any young boy, growing up without a father always has difficult implications, but for Zolisa the situation worsened when his mother fell terminally ill two years ago. His mother had to be moved to a specialist hospital in Cape Town for the demanding care she needed. It felt as if his, and his brothers, world was falling apart and he had no option but to leave home.

Living with their Great Aunt, and seven other people in a small house, things were not quite the same for these two boys. The whole household was dependent upon the pension of their great Aunt (R880 per month / £73) as it is the sole source of income for the household.

Zolisa felt he and his brother were a burden to his Aunt, not surprising when her pension equated to less than R5 (40p) per person per day. As a result there were many periods when Zolisa was only eating a meal once every three days.

When the opportunity came along to send one of our talented sports men to one of the top schools in the country, it was not difficult for us to choose Zolisa – not because of his circumstances but in spite of them. He was one of our most dedicated learners, his enthusiasm and determination within our program stood out. He was dedicated and committed, regardless of the family situation back home, and clearly wanted more from his life.

Zolisa now eats regular meals, has grown hugely both physically and mentally and after just one year at his new school, stands out as a fine, well mannered young man. Most importantly he is receiving a top level education which will allow him to progress onto almost any career path he chooses and ultimately completely change his own future and that of his family.

Zolisa is a great example of the opportunities we strive to create for our children. We are so proud of how far Zolisa has come and so excited about where he is going!

(Special thanks to Theo Jackson Scholarship Fund for making this possible)

June 16th marks a very special day for the youth of South Africa; it is celebrated as Youth Day. Being an organisation that has as its primary goal the development of youth, United Through Sport SA held a HCT 5-a-side Tournament at a small town just outside of Port Elizabeth, Addo, home to the beautiful Addo Elephant Park. The point of this tournament was to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and to encourage HIV counselling and testing.

The 95 children playing on the day comprised of 7 local soccer teams and one local netball team; which were all under the age of 16, with the senior teams being the South African Police Services (SAPS) playing against the local team, Addo Legends. Also taking part in the tournament were our School of Excellence soccer boys and netball girls. The local police and health department were very involved on the day, making it the success it was.

Opening the day before the games was a performance from local traditional dancers which had the crowd amazed as the little boys and girls showed off their talents to the beats of the drum. When that was done, the first round of the soccer started.

The community was really giving their support, with the old and the young cheering on. Being spectators was not the only way they were getting involved though; the queues for the HIV testing were getting longer by the minute. The added extra benefit with the mobile clinic at the field was the fact that the nurses were also screening for TB, blood sugar, haemoglobin and blood pressure, not only HIV testing and counselling. Olive Leaf was there as well, giving HIV counselling and testing. Some of the children were busy with our life skills guys doing activities from our curriculum, which promotes abstinence and educates about this deadly disease. Condoms were also made available to everyone, encouraging safe sex to the youth.

Our SSE netball team won the junior tournament beating their Addo opponents convincingly. The police team was starting to warm up now, knowing the masters game was coming up after the semi-finals of the junior team. With the HIV counselling and testing still carrying on in the mobile clinics, the day was getting even more exciting and the pressure on the local teams was building up. The SAPS team proved to everyone watching that once you join the force, you go through a lot of fitness training and used this to press home their advantage and win the master’s game.

The UTS SA boys faced the Buffalos in the final round and contrary to what everyone might believe, we really did not want to win this final match… but our boys just could not play down their talent! They were the winners of the tournament, with a 2-1 victory.

The post-match presentation had prizes for the following individuals: top goal scorer, goal keeper of the tournament, player’s player, player of the tournament and coach of the tournament. The senior team got a floating trophy and bragging rights!

With a total of 74 youth between 13 and 18 years old testing on the day, and 45 between 19 and 35 years old, the day was a success for our first HCT Tournament in Addo. The community of Addo was a pleasure to work with. The event would not have been the success it was if we did not have support from the Cacadu Health Department, Olive Leaf, the SAPS, the Sundays River Citrus Company (oranges were the order of the day!) and Zola, who co-ordinated all the Addo logistics for us. We look forward to doing some more work with this community, as their appreciation was very encouraging.

Of the 74 children, none were HIV positive and of the older youth, 24 % tested HIV positive. This just proved how programmes such as ours are needed to keep the young generation in the HIV-free zone. The community of Addo pleaded us to come back and get their kids more involved in sport. “We are happy when our kids are having fun and learning at the same time, as AIDS is a big problem” commented one of the parents.

To celebrate Youth Day on June 16^th, we hosted our first VCT Tournament held in Addo, a small rural town outside Port Elizabeth, with soccer and netball being the two sports played. The point of this tournament was to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and to encourage HIV counseling and testing. On the day, we accomplished testing 74 youth in the age 12-17 years and 54 older than 18 years. Of the 74 children, none were HIV positive and of the older youth, 24 % tested HIV positive. The community of Addo pleaded us to come back and get their kids more involved in sport. “We are happy when our kids are having fun and learning at the same time, as AIDS is a big problem” commented one of the parents.

The United Through Sport SA Senior School of Excellence (SSE) has been lucky enough to get a kitchen-makeover in April. Stanley House from Wellington College in the UK raised funds to be used to renovate the kitchen at our School of Excellence. The UTS SA kitchen, which was in desperate need of an upgrade, is currently used to feed more than 150 children per day who participate in the sports program coordinated by UTS SA at Ithembelihle High School in New Brighton. “The kitchen is now more pleasant to work in, the running water being the highlight of the upgrade” Nokuthula Mcondobi, Food Assistant, Umzingisi.

We have put into practice, with the assistance of international volunteers, measures to work on the SSE kids’ language skills; the emphasis of this being improving the kids’ spoken English. For two afternoons a week, the students have discussion sessions on various topics, ranging from alcohol, under-age sex, abortion, performance enhancing drugs,  relationships and gender roles to politics, religion and the World Cup. These are just a few of the topics, drama games are also included as well as reading and presenting exercises. It was amazing to see, as time went, the shy kids coming out of their shells and expressing their opinions. The fact that the topics are on taboo subjects most of the time, these discussions get heated as the kids are not shy to strongly oppose each other on their different views and perspectives. On a weekly basis, we call in external facilitators to conduct life skills workshops with the kids. They cover topics such as early parenthood, time management, sexual health, alcohol and drug addictions, self esteem and motivation, communication skills and financial budgeting, just to name a few. 

Four of our SSE boys played their first chess tournament three months ago and according to Aviwe, one of the players in the tournament, this was an exhilarating learning experience full of fun and they all learned a lot from it. We introduced this game to the kids with the vision of it being helping the kids in terms of their problem solving skills, their concentration levels, strategizing and it promoting, amongst many other things, their mental awareness. With the exception of the youngest player, the boys each won a minimum of 2 games in the tournament.

On the sports field, the SSE boys and girls have been very busy with school leagues, tournaments and trying out for provincial colours. The soccer boys played a big FNB Victoria Park Soccer Challenge, which had a few national schools coming down to Port Elizabeth to compete. Our U/19 boys did us very proud by making it to the final; where they were the runner-ups of the tournament. Our netball girls and rugby boys also took part in a big event; the FNB Classic Clashes; where both netball and rugby went home with the title, with the rugby boys winning it for the third year in a row. We are also proud to say that we have a representative in the EP U/19 Netball team (provincial), Nomawethu Runeli, who made the team in the beginning of June.

Over the last week of July, UTS SA has had three visits from schools in the UK. The netball girls played against St Albans High School for Girls and the rugby played Wellington College as well as Sedbergh School. It is always a pleasure for our kids to host such schools of prestige and play them in the townships. It means even more when, like Sedbergh did, the opponents spend the whole day experiencing life in a typical day of a South African child in the less advantaged areas of our country. The Sedbergh boys sat in classes with our boys, which was a different experience to what they are familiar with. “It was challenging playing against them, and learning about England earlier in the day was very interesting. They have as few as six students in a class, I have never heard of that! We have six times that amount!” Ludwe Jack, Grade 12, UTS SA Beneficiary

These past few months have been activity packed, our kids are progressing both on and off the field and we have enjoyed the visitors we have had, who now hopefully have a better understanding of the needs these children have. We appreciate all the assistance and helping hands from our donors, enabling UTS SA to carry out the work it does.

“It is great to see how our programme is affecting the lives of the youth in South Africa, assisting them in their growth and developing them to be responsible young citizens, giving them hope for a better future”.- Spakes Xapile, Project Manager, UTS SA.