You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘South Africa’ tag.
I am on my way to South Africa. I will be traveling with my 4 best advisors.
The focus of the trip will be to meet with new & old friends & partners & see some existing projects & scout for new opportunities. A couple of practical outcomes will be:
- Find out what is working & what isn’t
- Find out ways Ball Project can & can’t help
It is important to try to be with partners face to face on the ground where we can eat together & spend time talking, listening, encouraging, learning & playing with one another as we work together to help children play.
The big idea behind Ball Project is simple: help children play.
Kids that play together won’t kill each other when they grow up.
Ball Project helps get balls & sports equipment to coaches & community leaders around the world.
Ball Project is volunteer led & our partners help kids & communities around the world.
Ball Project partners with all kinds of organizations: coaches, teams, leagues, schools, orphanages, churches & more.
Here is a very encouraging update from one of our Prochorus partners in Kayamandi, South Africa:
Unakho is the day care centre for differently abled children in Kayamandi. The centre started in 2009 and since then has strived to create a safe place for children who don’t always have a place in other schools. Unakho is currently the only preschool for children with disabilities within Kayamandi and Stellenbosch. C, our Principal, has been there from the start and she is such an example of unconditional love to these precious children. She is very passionate about these children and has learned so much over the past years. She has been through extensive training and courses to work with children with special needs. Khanysiwha, the assistant has also been trained to work with children with special needs. Ongoing support and regular training are provided by the CSPID team from the Western Cape forum for intellectual disabilities. Senecio, an organization that specialise in working with children with disabilities also visits Unakho on a regular basis for extra support, encouragement and training. Unakho also forms part of the Stellenbosch Disability Network in Stellenbosch. It is a network within Stellenbosch that strives to advocate for people with disabilities. We aim to work closer with other organizations that also work with children with disabilities to create more opportunities for children and youth with disabilities.
This year has been a good year, but as always it has been a challenging year. Working with children with intellectual, physical and physiological disabilities can be very challenging and draining.
Through the years C has gained so much understanding and knowledge about children with disabilities that she has also started to teach and support the parents to help and assist their children in the best possible way. She strives to assist families with the journey with their children.
In 2018 Unakho hosted 12 children. Some of the disabilities include Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Down syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, ADHD as well as two blind children. We strive to provide the children with the best possible care, stimulation and teaching. Some children are not able to speak, so communication cards are used to communicate with them. Most of the children move on to Dorothea, a Primary School for differently abled children in Cloetesville, Stellenbosch after been at Unakho. Dorothea always testifies that the children from Unakho are well prepared for school. Three of the children from Unakho will graduate from Unakho and move on the Dorothea in 2019.
We have used the funds donated by the Ball project to these projects by buying educational toys, balls and other educational needs. Thank you very much for your support. We appreciate it a lot.
Ball Project is thankful for our partners serving their communities to help children play.
The Ball Project 