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WKU Site visit in Eastern Cape

posted by Paul Kelly on March 7th, 2010

Tom and I went on a whistlestop tour of the Eastern Cape last week to visit different sites for a potential roll out of the WhizzKids United programme in two new areas, Port Elizabeth and Canzibe.

We flew into East London on Wednesday, March 3, to meet with Dr. Paul Cromhout at the Small Projects Foundation. They would like to offer their local knowledge and expertise to help us get the programme started. SPF already partner with our programme funders in Rustenburg, One to One Childrens Fund (O2O).

The following day we drove to Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth to discuss the programme with Nonkosi Dlalasi and Cheeky Zonto, who are both based at Dora Nginza Hospital, and work for O2O.

On Friday, we drove five hours to Canzibe, a rural area in the Transkei, and met with Alice Klaarveld, a who also works for SPF and is based at Canzibe Hospital.

We then took a treacherous and bumpy two hour drive down to the coast and spent the night in Coffee Bay. In the morning, I went for a surf while Tom took a relaxing hike along the cliffs, before we drove back to Durban arriving in time for Marcus′ birthday party that night. Happy Birthday Marcus !!!

All in all, we are very excited about the outcomes of the site visit and met some truly exceptional people that could make the programme a success in the targeted areas. We would like to thank One to One Childrens Fund, who funded the trip, and everyone who we met along the way.

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FIFA Festival 2010 Kids selected

posted by Oli Walsh on March 5th, 2010

Today marked the day when we would eventually try and select our kids for Festival 2010. Having been postponed by a week due to the Durban weather, there was an air of nervousness at the volunteer house last night as the rain came down!

Thankfully this morning the sun came out, and it had not actually rained in Lamontville! So between 100 and 150 kids, boys and girls, from three schools that had participated in our life skills programme came to Lamontville Sports Ground, all hoping to clinch one of the four spots for Festival 2010!

FIFA’s Football for Hope Festival 2010 is a week long programme of sporting, artistic and musical activities with 52 organisations using sport for social change flying in from around the world. FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter expressed that “the Football for Hope Festival will be a unique opportunity for organisations using football as a tool for social development in every part of the world to interact with each other and to showcase their programmes on football’s biggest stage –the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We look forward to welcoming them to South Africa and experiencing together how football is contributing to a better future.”

We are partnering with Altus Sport who will be providing the older kids in the 15-18 bracket, as a lot of our kids were on the younger side. Unfortunately we have had to exclude many kids form the selection process as they were just too young, with much of our focus on 11-14 year old kids.

The day had been designed by Matthias and Stefan, with the morning focus on football ability, attitude and how they worked within a team. The kids were then whittled down to a group of 30, who took part in some life skills and football sessions, until we had a final 10 who all presented on a topic from our programme! We then ended up with our final four, two boys and two girls who were the chosen ones!

The highlight for all the kids (apart from the chosen four!), was a visit from local PSL side Lamontville Golden Arrows. They very kindly brought all of their playing squad, as well as their coaching staff. They talked to all our kids of their experiences as footballers, their life experiences, stressed the importance of attitude and also gave the kids a chance to ask questions, with one kid asking Philani Shange why he had not finished school! A big thank you to Lamontville Golden Arrows, the chance for the kids to meet their heroes is a real motivator, especially as many of them aspire to be footballers one day!

Please check out our gallery soon for more pictures from the event

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100 Days to go!

posted by Oli Walsh on March 1st, 2010

Today marked the 100 day countdown to the World Cup, which was a day of celebration across South Africa. FIFA, alongside the LOC and 100 journalists, had visited all the hosting cities and their stadia. The tour culminated in a lavish banquet at the ICC last night, attended by our CEO Marcus, followed by an event at the Moses Mabhida Stadium today with South Africa due to play tomorrow.
As FIFA’s only Football for Hope implementing partner in KwaZulu natal, we were very excited to hear that FIFA would be coming to Durban and this was heightened when we heard that FIFA would come visit our programme, as our headquarters are just 5 minutes from the stadium. We readied the kids, who all painted banners for the event and organised a tournament and life skills event for the day, involving over 200 kids and staff. Plans then changed slightly; we would not hold the event at our ofifce but we could still take the kids to the stadium to be part of the official event. Finally, yesterday, we were told we could take one kid along to meet the President, not exactly what we had hoped for, but a once in a lifetime for him nonetheless. Lethu Mkhize was selected from Clarence Primary School as their best footballer; I will upload a picture tomorrow!!!
So let us celebrate that the World Cup is nearly here but keep our fingers crossed that we can be a part of the legacy that lives on!

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Thank you to two of our supporters

posted by Oli Walsh on March 1st, 2010

I just wanted to write a note to say a big thank you to two supporters who have raised funds for us through an online fundraising portal backabuddy.
Both were supporting very different causes; Gina Timm whose father had sadly passed away asked friends and family to donate to our organisation, instead of donating flowers. We are really thrilled, and the feedback from Gina is that we were chosen becuase of her dad′s love for kids and football, which is great!
The second donation came through Craig Lazarus, who is hoping to raise 100,000 RA by running the London marathon. We wish him the best of luck both in his training and also in is fundraising!
If you would like to donate to either cause, or set up your own fundraising page for Africaid and any events you may be doing then please let me know.
We are so touched by the generousity of the two of them, so thank you again!

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NGO Work - A Rollercoaster Ride

posted by Oli Walsh on February 27th, 2010

Last week best illustrated the rollercoaster ride that all those working in an NGO experience, almost on a daily basis!
Good news is almost always followed by bad news and vice versa, we just need to ensure we do not let the bad news keep us down and ensure we celebrate the good news!
Whether it is feedback from a funding proposal, news on an award, conversations with local government departments or at a basic level and our expectations that our good work should get the recognition it deserves; either internally, externally or from the very organisations that are supposed to support you!
This aside we had a great two days of internal training and capacity building with another local organisation, OneVoice South Africa, who like us are looking at HIV prevention but through creative expression. It gave us all a chance to share ideas on our organisation, talk openly and frankly with our counterparts and look at ways we could learn from each other and work together moving forward. All staff from our side benefited greatly from it and hope the One Vocie staff felt the same. We hope everyone keeps their promises to work together and share best practice!

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Matthias the media star

posted by Oli Walsh on February 19th, 2010

The office was quiet at times this week, with Marcus our CEO away in Europe, Paul and Simanga from the programme management team in Jozini, launching a new programme with AMREF, Stefan in and out of the office on site visits, and Tom and Zanele going to Jozini on Thursday to carry out pre-questionnaires for M & E!
Work still went on, with a big focus on the struggle to secure funds for the pitch at the Health Academy!
Matthias received feedback on a tournament his old football coach had organised in Germany, which managed to raise over 1000 Euros for WhizzKids. It was attended by ex volunteer Harry to be our WhizzKids representative. So big thanks to Matthias′s coach, Harry and of course Matthias! This is really something we want to push with ex volunteers to try and get them involved in fundraising in their own countries, and to ensure they are spreading the WhizzKids word! As a result, Matthias has become a media star with a story in a local German newspaper, so well done! We will write a full story on Harry’s feedback from the tournament in the newsletter this month!

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WhizzKids United Day

posted by Oli Walsh on February 13th, 2010

February the 13th is a very special day in the life of Africaid′s WhizzKids United. On this day, back in 2006, WhizzKids United was officially launched.
We sometimes get so involved in our work, that we do not stop to reflect and celebrate all the great things we have done. So we thought it would be a good idea to make the 13th of February WhizzKids United day and celebrate our achievements in helping so many kids, now, but also for years to come!
Since our programme started in 2006 (it was developed between 2004 and 2005) in Edendale, KwaZuluNatal, we have had 10,000 kids through our programme!
Yesterday, we marked the occasion (on the Friday as the day itself fell on a Saturday), by closing the office for a couple of hours and taking all our office staff and trainers, to climb the arch of the Moses Mahbida stadium, all 550 steps up and 550 down, with an amazing view of Durban!
It was a great team bonding experience, an opportunity for everyone to reflect on WhizzKids′ achievements and to look forward to the World Cup and beyond!
Let’s remember to celebrate February 13th every year from now on; it is much more important than the 14th!

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Visit to pitch manufacturer!

posted by Oli Walsh on February 3rd, 2010

Yesterday Marcus and I visited a company based in Pietermaritz- burg, Greenfields, who we are looking to produce our new pitch for the Health Academy.
It was great to meet them as they clearly have alot of expertise in the area and we got to visit the factory which showed us the entire process involved in producing the pitch! It is a huge factory and the process is many steps, followed with great care and attention!
We really want to ensure that the pitch we build is a top quality pitch as this Health Academy is our first and will be the template for all future WhizzKids United Academies.
From talking to them and their feedback on pitches, we also believe that by investing in this pitch, will ensure it is there for the long term.
We desperately need funding for the pitch, so please go to our donations page; you can either donate money or you can go to betterplace to buy a square of pitch!! If you are a big donor or corporate we can even give you perimeter board exposure around the pitch!

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sOccket featured in New York Times

posted by Oli Walsh on January 27th, 2010

As some of you may remember, last summer we had a university student from Harvard, Jessica Lin, who was piloting her new project, sOccket, which is a "fun portable energy harvesting power source in the form of a soccer ball".
She piloted the ball with a number of our kids and the development is on going. The project was recently featured in the New York Times, so please read the story here:
New York Times Story
We wish her luck with the programme and follow it with keen interest and hope she can come back to test the final ball!
For more on her programme and to follow their progress please visit the sOccket website.

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World Cup getting closer by the day

posted by Oli Walsh on January 22nd, 2010

The 2010 World Cup is getting closer and closer and to help you keep a track, we have put a countdown on our website, so keep coming back to have a look.

Today is also the deadline for the third ticketing phase, so let′s hope the tickets start to sell a bit better so there are not empty stadiums come June. It is great that FIFA and the LOC are looking into new ways to sell the tickets to ensure they are more accessible to South Africans, but think that they are still far too expensive for your average South African. This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so need to ensure that as many people as possible from all walks of life can be a part of this World Cup and ensure it does not just pass them by.

While we have a lot of great teams playing in Durban, we are still waiting to see who will be basing their team in Durban for training purposes. Hopefully it will give our kids an opportunity to attend a training session and get close to some of the World stars. Most teams appear to be choosing places near Jo′burg or at altitude with many teams already deciding their base. The FIFA deadline is next week, so let′s hope Durban can secure a few top teams; it really is a great place to be based!

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