Swimming lessons started at Philippi Children's Centre with a bang.
Craig, our patient and well-loved swimming coach introduced the children to the pool. The children have never experienced swimming lessons before and were brimming with anticipation.
Craig said, "I am following a programme specifically aimed at the children's needs by starting with basic water safety e.g. blowing bubbles, speedboats, monkey crawls on the pool walls, jumping into the pool and returning to the wall of the pool. Once each child is water safe, strokes and techniques will be introduced."
Craig has years of experience as a lifeguard having worked for the City of Cape Town saving lives. As a learn to swim coach from the community, the opportunity for Craig is indescribable as Headstart Swim School will be training him to manage the swimming academy, from scheduling lessons, teaching adults and children, maintaining the facility, liaising with parents and reporting on the progress of the children.
Jane, Secretary of the Managment Committee of Philippi Children's Centre expressed heartfelt thanks on behalf of the committee. The children, she said, are "wild with excitement. As you can see from the attached photos, the pool is sparkling. The building is immaculate. Craig is a miracle of patience. The children really enjoy themselves and gain in confidence by the minute. To use a good old South African expression, the pool and swimming programme are “awesome.”
The Love to Langa Swimming Academy is the first of its kind in South Africa. There are many swimming schools but our academy will truly be making a difference.
Phase 1
- Build a swimming academy in a township.
Phase 2
- Have a reputable swim school run the swimming academy by employing and mentoring a swim coach who resides in the community to manage the facility. Develop and mentor the coach and other future swim coaches.
Phase 3
- After three years of development, Headstart will hand the management of the Love to Langa Swimming Academy to the community only on the condition that there has been sufficient training and the academy is sustainable.
This is a case study and project of Love to Langa and Global Impact Social Advisory.
We are thrilled to announce that the Love to Langa Swimming Academy at Philippi Children's Centre is finally complete. The finishing touches have been accomplished and now all we need is for the building inspectors and project manager to sign off the pool as per the conditions required by City of Cape Town planning.
Links:
Dear Donors and Friends:
After three years of hard work, planning, and fundraising, we are finally just about ready to open the Love to Langa Swimming Academy at Philippi Children's Centre!
The building is completed, the water is filled, the finishing touches are being done and we hope to have the official opening by the end of November.
It was a special joy to have Carmen, a Love to Langa Advisory Board member from Philadelphia, PA, visit the site this week while she was on vacation with friends in South Africa. Carmen is the manager of business and employee engagement at a major pharmaceutical company. She said, "Having been involved with Love to Langa at the inception of this project, I am so gratified to be able to see its completion in person. We are so proud to be able to offer this first-of-its-kind lifesaving opportunity to the children of Philippi Children's Centre."
Thank you to everyone for helping to make this accomplishment possible! We are counting on your continued support to enable every child at Philippi Children's Centre to have swimming lessons.
We look forward to sharing news and photos of children learning in and enjoying the pool in our next report.
My husband, Jon, and I were thrilled to travel from Philadelphia to Cape Town last week to check on the progress of the Love to Langa Swimming Academy at Philippi Children's Centre. Despite the rainy winter in Cape Town stalling work for quite some time, construction is now in full swing and the walls have started going up.
On a beautiful, sunny day, we gathered with the Philippi Children's Centre Committee and Viv, who will be running the swim school initially. The plan is to professionally run the school for up to two years, while training members of the community to take over so that it will become a sustainable resource for the school and community. With construction going on in the background, we unveiled a temporary sign recognizing the major donors to this project, which will be the first learn-to-swim pool of it's kind in the Townships near Cape Town.
It was very gratifying, as well, to see the beautiful, completed Love to Langa classroom, sponsored by our donors. This kindergarten classroom is equipped to a high standard and principal Sweleni proudly showed us around.
Weather cooperating, we look to see the swim school completed in the next couple of months and the plan is for the official opening to occur in November on the school's parent visiting day.
Endless thanks to you, our generous donors, for helping to make this dream a reality. We are anxiously awaiting the first sponsored swimming lessons and with the Olympic Games currently occurring, Viv told us her own dream is to identify and train a future triathlete from the Townships.
Please see the link to visit our Facebook page for more photos!
Links:
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
