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The Journey Continues: Malawi, Zambia & Botswana

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May has seen a busy month for our man Richard Bennett as he heads down through the African continent taking Rugby and important educational messages to thousands of kids.

Over the past few weeks the team of 6 have visited schools in Malawi (Mngwangwa Full Primary School) and Zambia (Nahumba Basic School), empowering local school teachers and coaches to work with the kids on an ongoing basis. Decent sports equipment has been left in each of the schools as well as link ups with UK based schools to continue the support after the team moved on.

Many pupils turned out in their hundreds to support their classmates in the rugby tournaments, with all children enjoying themselves and trying their hardest at the game; many cheering enthusiastically from the sidelines.

Head of P.E. at Nahumba Basic School in Zambia said the following about the visit:

“We have really enjoyed this week. Especially as the game doesn’t exist here yet – it has been a pleasure learning the game. The pupils are enjoying it very much and the ones who don’t play are eager to join in. We want to continue when you leave and go to other schools to teach them so we can have competitions. It would be my pleasure to spread rugby among the adults in Choma as well!”

The journey now sees the team head South into Botswana, with the final two destinations being Namibia and South Africa. Richard will spend time working alongside Nick Mould (Country Director) at our permanent United Through Sport base in South Africa (Port Elizabeth) where we currently work with over 20,000 kids. We are looking forward to welcoming the team and we are sure a long overdue haircut will be in order!

Facilities Boost for School of Excellence

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There have been some exciting new developments at the Junior School of Excellence (JSE); the sports facilities are looking great! The children are very excited to start playing on their upgraded facilities, which will do wonders for their skills development. The upgrade of the facilities was sponsored by terres des homes Germany through the, ‘A Chance To Play Programme’ as part of their on-going support of United Through Sport’s mission to bring the opportunity of playing structured sports activities to every child in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The all round facility upgrade included building a new netball court, two cricket nets, rugby and football posts, a spectator stand for up to 70 people and purchasing an industrial lawn mower and line marking machine to allow the school to maintain the rugby and football fields.

The new facilities have now allowed the School to enter into the local Super 12 competition where they will be the only township school competing. This was previously not possible as they were unable to host home matches against top (former model c) schools. The children are all very excited at the thought of hosting multi-racial schools and playing against “abelungu” (white people) at home, as this will be a first amongst the township schools of the area.

These new facilities have been a great boost for the school and fantastic starting point, the next goal is to raise funds to extend the netball court to a tennis court and improve the hockey playing surface.

“I am so excited to play our first match at home, it will be the first time my dad can come and watch me play, and he will sit in the stands to watch me, like I am a professional!” – Zizipho Ndongeni, 12 yrs old, grade 7

Over 8500 Children Enjoy Sports

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The Mass Participation Programme (MPP) has continued to reach new heights in the first half of the year; reaching 43 schools and a total of 8600 kids with a total of 12 sessions per child in sports and life skills activities, totalling 103,200 sessions!

The MPP not only closes the sports gap (as physical education is no longer offered by teachers in these schools), but our life skills coaches bridge the generation gap between parent and child in some of these children’s lives. The fact that we have young energetic staff hailing from the same communities makes it easy for the children to approach them and open up about personal matters they are not completely comfortable talking to teachers about.

Having the international volunteers involved in this programme is a great advantage as the children love to engage with them and learn about their different cultures and backgrounds. Mixing with international coaches makes the children highly motivated and broadens their horizons to the wider world beyond the township.

“As this is our longest running program, it is heart warming to know that we still continue to bring joy and excitement to thousands of children in the communities of Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounding areas while still managing to impart key life skills and educational messages!” – Hannah Clare, General Manager, United Through Sport.

Gold Challenge Olympic Stadium Event

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Last Sunday saw thousands gather at the Olympic Stadium for a once in a life time opportunity to step onto the athletics track with a lucky few even taking part in a 100m race.

Members of the public were taking part in the Gold Challenge Event – a key test event at the Olympic stadium, whilst raising money for charity, including United Through Sport. The Gold Challenge stadium event was a fantastic celebratory event for partners and Gold Challengers, rewarding them for their fundraising and sporting achievements.

Former rugby internationals Austin Healey and Gareth Thomas took to the track and other celebrities including Katie Price also made an appearence.

Everyone who attended played an important role in helping London 2012 prepare for the Games. This is all part of the preparation for the Greatest Show on Earth!

You still have time to take on the Gold Challenge yourself by registering your details here: http://goo.gl/uo3Lu

Thanks to all that took part and making it a truely fantastic day out.

UTS visits schools in Ethiopia and Kenya

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For the last month a team has been heading down through Europe and into Africa to deliver Rugby and other sports sessions as a platform to improve health, education and build life skills in young people.

Richard Bennett, leading the team gives us his update:
Our first school visit was set for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and, to get there, the team drove 10,000km in 32 days, overland from the UK, through Europe and North Africa. After a day spent at local government school, Kokebetsibah, arranged by partner NGO, Plan UK, we moved to Adama where we’d be based for the week, coaching pupils and staff at Nafyad School and Adama No. 2 Elementary.

Rugby is not a known sport in Ethiopia, so we caused quite an interest… Maximising Nafyad’s timetabled PE lessons, we saw over 600 pupils a day, got the staff playing touch rugby and finished the week with a multi-year group tournament, with local staff refereeing some of the matches. It came as no surprise when Ethiopian TV journalists arrived with their camera to report on the action, featuring our visit that night on the news!

Results from the visit:
Number of pupils coached – 1240
Amount of pupils participating in 3 or more sessions – 44%
Male : Female – 60 : 40
Number of buddy coaches* – 7
Number of local staff empowered – 2

*Buddy coach = local member of staff supporting our coaches during a rugby session.

Abraham Legese, P.E. Teacher, Nafyad School said the following:
“We are very happy because having United Through Sport and Bhubesi Pride here is very lovely for us. It is important that all players are equal. Through learning about the values of rugby, people begin to respect each other, and there is a sense of unity and community in the school. The children must develop good behaviour and be sociable to each other”
Moving on to Kenya.

To reach our next partner school involved a long drive south to Nairobi in Kenya: Shadrack Kimalel, on the edge of the Kibera slum. A severely underprivileged community, we saw nothing but talent and enthusiasm for a game perfect for the pupils here, displaying natural ability and athleticism. Adding further value to our work at Shadrack, our coaching team was joined by students from our host school for the week, Brookhouse School, who autonomously delivered fantastic sessions.

Results from the visit:
Number of pupils coached – 450
Amount of pupils participating in 3 or more sessions – 60%
Male : Female – 60 : 40
Number of buddy coaches – 3
Number of local staff empowered – 1 (5 Brookhouse students develop coaching skills)

Thanks to all who are involved with this exciting project and we look forward to updating you again soon.

Nike and Roger Federer Support UTS

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United Through Sport South Africa is proud to be one of the first 26 (NIKE)RED grant recipients. This fund is managed by the King Baudouin Foundation and aims to support our new Junior School of Excellence Program with a particular focus on the HIV / AIDS awareness life skills elements of the program.

As a fitting launch to the program Roger Federer Foundation (supported by Nike) also donated 500 t-shirts with “I am Tomorrow’s Future” written across the chest. The JSE has the sole purpose of developing these young children holistically, to give them a brighter future so the t-shirts were very apt.

With UTS being a sport based organisation, it is great to have support from Roger Federer and from Nike, which is by far the most popular sports brand in the township communities. Nike believes in the power of unleashing human potential, both on the field and in life; which is exactly what we strive to do in all our programs, making the relationship between UTS and (NIKE)RED a fitting partnership. The investment (NIKE)RED is making in our Junior School of Excellence will go a long way to realise the potential of our beneficiaries, grooming them to be tomorrow’s future.

Junior School of Excellence is Launched

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2012 marks the beginning of a new program at United Through Sport South Africa; the Junior School of Excellence (JSE). This is an after-school program based at Isaac Booi, a school in the disadvantaged communities of Port Elizabeth that we have worked with for the past 6 years. Children from the Zwide community are invited to partake in the sports development, personal mentoring, academic support as well as life skills that are offered in this program over a one year period.

From our Mass Participation Program, children are identified for their dedication and commitment to the program, as well as their sporting ability. United Through Sport also works with local sports federations to identify talented children to partake in the JSE. A thorough selection process is done, which includes home visits to assess the situation at home and have a better understating of the family background. At United Through Sport, we aim to have a personal relationship with each and every child in the JSE program to better understand the behaviour patterns and personalities of the children. On a daily basis, the children also receive a nutritional meal in the program. This on its own is an incentive for some of the children not to miss a day’s attendance.

During their year long program at the Junior School of Excellence, these children will have the opportunity to be trained by top sports coaches, play in challenging fixtures, receive mentoring and academic support as well as inter-act with International volunteers who play a big role in boosting the confidence and English skills. The beneficiaries of this program are children that come from the poorest backgrounds in broken homes and go to disadvantaged schools. The JSE therefore provides a platform for these children to be developed holistically as well as be exposed to opportunities they may not have had otherwise. As part of the program, these children will have the opportunity of meeting and inter-acting with some of their local sport role models, who also come from similar backgrounds. This will mean a lot to these children as it will give them hope for a bright future and a drive to succeed.

At the end of the year, a selected number of graduates will move on to the next level, the Senior School of Excellence (SSE), where they will be afforded scholarships to Former Model C schools for their high school career. At the SSE they will receive top level teaching, highly intense sports coaching and they will school with children from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Most importantly their chances of going on to University will rise from 3% (the township norm) to 98% (the norm for former model c schools in this area).

Towards the end of last year, United Through Sport donated a series of encyclopaedias to Isaac Booi Primary School. The donation was a great way of strengthening the relationship with the school. Having such useful sources of information for the children would not only add value to our project, but to the school as a whole. The principal of Isaac Booi, Mr Mtyobo, was thrilled to receive the latest addition to the school library (a beautifully painted container in the school yard as there is not a library facility in the actual school building). It is “normal” school infrastructure such as a school library, school hall and sports facilities which are standard at Former Model C schools but are rarely seen in township schools.. Through programs such as our Junior School of Excellence we aim to afford all children these opportunities, reaching out to the poorest families.

UTS Drive Through 10 African Countries

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Today sees our man, Richard Bennett, venture out into the African Continent taking sport, health and educational messages to thousands of children.

Richard and his team of 5 will spend 6 months in two Land Rovers (very cosy) visiting 15 schools in 10 African countries, taking important life skill messages to kids through the powerful medium of sport.

Over the past week the team assembled, in Hertfordshire, for some intense training and bonding excercises. The team also got stuck into sorting out all the equipment that will be left with each African school along their visit, including rugby balls, pumps, cones, bibs, whistles and referee jerseys.

Jon Parry from Training Expertise, worked with the team, helping each member to become aware of different situations which could be potentially hazardous during the expedition. The activities gave the team an insight into proper care in remote locations, where sufficient medical assistance is sometimes not available.

The team were also able to spend valuable time with legendary Welsh International and British Lions full-back, JPR Williams, talking through the various elements of this year’s mission, where rugby and it’s values are so key to the delivery of the programme.

“As with all things, the preparation is very important, you’ve prepared very well for it. It’s quite exciting really, this all coming to fruition. We wish you all the best and our thoughts will be with you and let’s hope we can help the children of Africa to take on what is a great game of rugby union.”
JPR Williams

From all in the United Through Sport community we wish Richard a successful and sports fuelled trip. We believe this team truely have the power to touch the lives of many children and our thoughts go with them.

Keep coming back to our website to see updates on the team’s progress as they navigate their way through Africa

Paul Paddles Hard for UTS

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A big thank you goes out to Paul Young from Tunbridge Wells and his team, ‘Apalala’ (means dragon in Chinese), for raising money for United Through Sport at the Bewl Water Dragon Boat Festival in Sept 2011. More than 800 people competed in an amazing display of paddle power, excitement and fun. Since the event began in 1998 well over £1million has been raised for 175 local and international charities.

Get involved at next years event in Bristol.
Taking place on Sunday 23rd Sept 2012 at Baltic Wharf.

This is a brilliant way for teams to have fun and raise money for United Through Sport. People do not have to be fitness fanatics or marathon runners to compete in a team – it’s all about timing and teamwork! Team members aged from 16 to 60+ can paddle and raise money. We suggest teams raise at least £1,750. Each team has 16 paddlers and a drummer in each race but can have 20 or more in the team to include extra paddlers and raise more funds.

To see further details go to www.funraisers.org.uk and click on the event in the dropdown menu. Entry fee for each team is £350 – that’s about £20 per paddler. We would be delighted to have your team involved. Let us know if you are thinking of entering a team so we can keep you fully informed.

Alternatively you can call Pip Lightbody on 07092 222066 for further information.

Come and get involved for a great day out!

UTS at the Careers in Sport Conference

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This week saw, United Through Sport team members, James Burton and Richard Bennett attend the Careers in Sport and Leisure event at the International Centre in Telford.

Careers in Sport and Leisure is the only national careers event for the sports and leisure sector attracting over 4500 young people. It aims to provide proactive, driven young people with the best possible information, support and expertise to help in their decision making when it comes to their future careers.

James gave a comprehensive presentation both on Wednesday and Thursday, giving visitors to the event a better understanding of United Through Sport’s charitable goals and the chance to get involved in supporting the charity in the UK or as a volunteer sports coach overseas.

If you would like to know more about how you can get involved then check our our Volunteer or Fundraising Page.