Sport South Africa Project #54676

Empower 1300 kids through sport & education

by VUSA Rugby & Learning Academy

Empower 1300 kids through sport & education

Project Report | Mar 7, 2023
VUSA Update

By Nikki Matthews | Chief Operating Officer

The VUSA Rugby & Learning Academy continues to make strides in providing grassroots sport and academic support to young children in the community.

VUSA focuses on promoting rugby as a sport, while also providing academic support in English and Maths to children from the Langa Community in Cape Town. The academy has been successful in encouraging children to become more physically active and engaged in learning.

Outings and activities outside are a great way to expose children to new people places and experiences. At the end of last year, parents of Grade 6 & 7 learners at Bishops Prep held a Christmas party for the children, now an annual event which has become a great success. The party is a way to bring the community together and celebrate the holiday season. The children had a great time, and the event helped to foster a sense of community spirit among the families involved.

In addition to the Christmas party,VUSA also organized a beach outing for the children. The trip was a chance for the children to experience something new and exciting, and it was a great opportunity for them to socialize with their peers in a fun and safe environment.

One of the key features of VUSA is the daily hot meal that is provided to the children. For many of these children, this is the only hot meal they will have each day. The meal helps to ensure that the children are getting the proper nutrition they need to stay healthy and focused on their academic and athletic pursuits. 2022 has been a successful year in providing children with the tools they need to succeed, both on and off the field.

VUSA has become an important part of the Langa community, and we look forward to seeing its continued success in2023.

Please see attached the 2022 Annual Status report for more information.

Thank you for your generosity and support.

Kind regars

Nikki Matthews

Chief Operating Officer

Links:

2022 Annual Status Report

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Nov 7, 2022
Third Term Report

By Nikki Matthews | Chief Operating Officer

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts"
Winston Churchill

It has been another brilliant term of rugby, soccer, a cycle challenge, market days, learning, sharing and growing.

What gets us up in the morning is being able to give our children a safe and supportive environment to learn new skills and access new opportunities.

This term, we partnered with the fantastic team at Capitec. Volunteers from Capitec's retail, marketing and financial education divisions gave up their time to run entrepreneurial workshops with our U13s each Friday afternoon. They worked through a series of marketing-related modules, which included creating a business idea, identifying needs and target markets, financial literacy and marketing a business.

Skills required to be an entrepreneur include hard work, effective communication and resilience after disappointment. We tested these skills, hosting VUSA's first Market Day in conjunction with our first 7s tournament at the Langa Sports Grounds. Shoprite / Checkers, as always, invested generously in the children's small business, as did Nomu. Our first Market Day was launched on 3 September, a freezing, rainy, windy day. The children gave it their all and, most importantly, had a fantastic time selling their wares, from pot plants to pancakes. Thank you to everyone who supported this event.

Another highlight for the U13s was their invitation to the Independent School's Rugby Festival, hosted by Bishops in June. The children had an amazing weekend, meeting children from across the country and exploring some of Cape Town's beautiful sites (some for the first time), and playing rugby against some of the best teams in South Africa. To cap it all off, they won all of their games, playing great rugby - a massive boost to their confidence. Thank you to Coronation Fund Managers and the Bishops Prep PA for making this unforgettable experience available to our children.

Despite some initial teething problems, the Atlas Digibus programme has grown from strength to strength. It is beautiful to see children excited about learning. We had feedback from a parent who told us her child was 'too sick' to go to school for an entire week except onThursday when the bus was at her school. School staff have advised that children who are late daily are punctual on bus days. (The bus visits each of the five schools in Langa one day a week). To motivate a children to want to learn is half the battle, and we are grateful to have this vehicle to motivate and inspire our children.

To all Rugby lovers (or family and friends of rugby lovers), we have limited copies of the Official Commemorative Book of the British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa, 2021, available (a percentage of proceeds going to VUSA). This beautiful coffee table book makes for wonderful corporate gifts or gifts for loved ones. To purchase a copy, please see below.

Geoff Brownell has sadly resigned from the VUSA Board of Trustees. We thank Geoff for his valuable contribution to VUSA. He always had a kind and encouraging word and gave expert advice and counsel.

We welcome Stuart Abbott, Kay Lala-Sides and Nosipho Poswa as Trustees and look forward to this next chapter.

Thank you to all our partners, donors, volunteers, staff and friends for your support this quarter and for being part of this unique programme.

Kind regards
Brendan, Mak, Nikki

Links:

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Jul 12, 2022
Mid-year Report

By Nikki Matthews | Chief Operating Officer

Independent Schools Rugby Festival - Bishops

We began 2022 quite ambitiously with the launch of two big new programmes; the Atlas Digibus Programme and a new English as a Second Language Programme at our ECD centres. With so much academic time lost through the pandemic, it was all hands on deck to try to bring the children up to speed with everything they had missed.

The Atlas Digibus has not run without challenges but as with any project, with a strong team running it, this programme now runs from Monday to Fridays supporting 572 children at 5 primary schools in Langa in the morning and running Maths programmes for 230 children who attend our after-school programme. The next programme we are working on is a Coding course.

The ECD Programme continues to run the mobile library each day and the children squeal with delight each morning when Lungile arrives to transport them to another world through books whilst our coaches run the English as a Second Language programme and consolidate new themes through an active literacy programme.

Rugby is finally back and playing matches each Saturday is a highlight for our children who despite the two year Covid break are playing great rugby. At the end of June, our U13s were invited to participate in the Independent School's Rugby Festival at Bishops. They won all their games and whilst this isn't the most important part of playing, what these victory's did for their self-esteem is difficult to put in words. They also had four days to spend with children from around the country, from different socio-economic groups, races and religions. They went on a tour of Cape Town and despite being local residents, many had not visited most of our beautiful city. All in all an unbelievable experience for the children and our staff.

I have included some photo's of the last few months and a link to our mid-year newsletter. None of this work would be possible without your support. Thank you for your incredibly generous donations which provide these opportunities and experiences for our children. It is these experiences that will shape them and build them and hopefully motivate them to go out and reach for the stars - we thank you.

Table Mountain Outing

Written by VUSA child at the Beach

The Atlas Digibus

English as a Second Language ECD Programme

Links:

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