Helderberg Academy

South Africa has a passion for sport, however, poverty continues to exclude some communities from access to and training for participation in competitive sports. Disadvantaged communities lack facilities, infrastructure and funding for coaching of sports and young people are facing high rates of obesity with a risk of diabetes and health conditions related to blood pressure due to bad diet and lack of exercise. Within certain disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, young people are faced with the constant threat and affects of gangsterism, drugs and alcohol. Many children are raised in one parent families with mothers that work full-time to support the family. These young people cannot afford to attend after school sports activities and in the absence of this and positive role models, the lure of gangs becomes more appealing. Ukuthasa is proud to announce our support of a pilot sports programme in the Helderberg Basin. The Helderberg Basin, which is surrounded by the Helderberg and Hottentots Holland Mountains, is located about 45km east of Cape Town and includes the towns of Somerset West, Gordon's Bay, Strand and a few smaller towns. The Helderberg Academy Project teaches children and young people from disadvantaged communities life mentoring skills and leadership development through sport. The project is aimed at 11 to 14 year old children who live in the poorer communities of Lwandle, Macassar, Chris Nissen, Eerste Rivier, Sir Lowry’s Pass and Somerset West. The project provides weekly coaching sessions and sports tournaments to expose children to a range of sporting activities and provide opportunity to develop leadership skills and to teach life principles that will encourage them to take responsibility and to act as change agents in their local communities. The Helderberg Academy is spear-headed by volunteer Beth Rudge who is a qualified PE teacher from the UK. Beth has a passion for sport and using it as a vehicle to empower and encourage young people to make a positive difference in their communities. How does this project help? ✤ Currently there are no organisations that offer a range of sporting activities in these areas. ✤ This project helps prevent truancy from education and prevent young people from being drawn into petty crime and gang culture. ✤ It teaches children sports skills, physical and mental fitness, encourages potential and builds self-esteem. ✤ It offers a wider variety of sports, such as netball, touch rugby and volleyball, not just soccer. ✤ It develops life skills teaching values such as respect, team work, responsibility, leadership and mentoring through coaching.

The Academy kicks off for 2019

We are back in full swing in the Academy office, preparing everything for this next year. We are starting the year off on the topic of Success, looking at how to deal with success and failure. It was great to see the children and young people after a long Summer break and we are excited and expectant to see what God is going to do through us in the lives of these young ones.

The Helderberg Academy Easter holiday

club

This Easter Holidays we were privileged to run another of our Holiday Club programs on two days for our children and young people, 80 of them in total! It was an action packed 2 days, with non-stop activities and fun. Our yound people really enjoyed it, trying out new sports such as Tennis or Hockey for the first time. We also had visitors from England that had donated money which funded all of this terms holiday club.

SUCCESS STORY: Jadin

Jadin, has made huge progress this year. For a large part of last year, he had not been attending school and the coaching sessions proved challenging with behavioural issues and miscommunication. On some occasions this resulted in tears as he seemed to feel isolated because he could not access what was being taught. However, since returning to school, the team have seen a huge improvement in Jadin’s attitude, behaviour and achievement during the coaching sessions. He particularly excelled in the monthly life-skill – Success. On a number of occasions, he had been proactive with helping the coaches and others and has made phenomenal progress in his attitude. As a result, he received the monthly award. The Academy has always focussed on the importance of regular school attendance and Jadin’s success is an indication of this.

Home Visits

The Helderberg Academy team have been visiting the homes of those who regularly attend the sessions. This is a great opportunity to give feedback to the parents / carers and find out how the young person is doing at school. They have a holistic approach to coaching, being involved in all aspects of their lives, not just on the field or court. The team will often do home visits at the end of the school term when the school reports are sure to come out so they can see how the boys and girls are getting on. They have already had some excellent visits in Macassar and Lwandle where the team provided encouragement to the children’s parents / carers. The coaches hope these visits will provide us with further opportunities to build stronger links in the community.

Touch Rugby Tournament:

Ukuthasa funded the first Touch Rugby Tournament held in Somerset West to raise awareness of the Helderberg Academy to children in the Eerste River, Macassar, Sir Lowry’s Pass and Somerset West areas. In the morning, the children were split into teams, each team had two coaches. The coaches took the children through a warm-up and taught them basic ball skills - throwing and catching a rugby ball and the Rules. Then they took part in a round-robin tournament. All participants were treated to a barbeque for lunch. The event proved very successful, running very smoothly and to time with 31 children, 6 coaches, 2 referees and a score keeper attending. The local areas were fairly well represented, however not without some disappointment with no attendance from Lwandle and an expectation of more children from Macassar. News of the event success should spread and will hopefully garner more interest. All of the children enjoyed themselves and had plenty of time to play. Very positive comments were received from adults and children that came to support the event.

Making a difference

"I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for the time that Lezaine attended the activities with the Helderberg Academy. You played a big role in his life to achieve this opportunity. I know that he will help the Academy as soon as he finishes his high school career. " - Lezaine’s mom