50,000? PPI is about to reach its tenth anniversary, just as we’re passing the big 5-0-0-0-0 in terms of participants reached. And we’re not done yet.
So…ngiyabonga, baie dankie, toda, shokran, efxaristo, teşekkür ederim, and go raibh maith agat! (a.k.a. “Thank you!”)
But don’t think your off the hook. We’re all in this togther, and we’ll need your help continuing to break new ground using basketball for peace:
Filed under Cyprus, Global, Northern Ireland, South Africa, The Middle East
A PSP coach and all-area starter for the eThekwini (Durban) U-19 team, heads in for a dunk.
Our PPI-SA Basketball Committee must have an undercover interior decorator in the group. Noticing the blank walls and an opportunity to don PPI memorabilia throughout our colorful yet wall-less office, the group decided to create an official PPI-SA Basketball Hall of Fame.
Just like high schools around the States have banners for each sport with captains’ names, championships, and other awards, like 1,000-point scorers, our office will now create a list of accolades our players have earned, starting in 2010.
These awards are many. Many of our Primary School Program (PSP) players have participated in Provincial matches and some have even earned MVP honors. Such an honor, we’ve decided, deserves a place on our PPI-SA Hall of Fame. A further example that requires public recognition is one of our Leadership Development Program (LDP) girls, who earned a spot on the Provincial AND the initial South African squad. Our PSP coaches will also be recognized for earning sports on Varsity and Provincial teams.
Coach Alan coached seven boys to scholarships at one of the best Durban high schools.
Honors not necessarily to be placed on the Hall of Fame, though still worthy of high recognition, include seven of our PSP players who earned scholarships to one of the most prestigious all-boys high schools in Durban. One of PPI-SA’s most tenured participants (as a player-turned-coach) was recently named assistant coach at another prestigious all-boys high school teams in Durban. Along with this title, he plays college-level basketball, where he serves as captain of his team. Many of our PPI graduates currently play at the varsity level, where they see significant minutes as leaders on the court.
PPI-SA is decidedly not an “elite” basketball program – participants are welcome, and encouraged to attend, regardless of their prior aptitude in basketball, reflecting PPI-SA’s primary mission of equipping the youth of Durban with skills for a healthy life. However, what brings most of our participants out day after day and week after week is not “life skills education”, but the game they love. They want to improve, and, if we want to continue reaching children as deeply as we do, we want them to improve too – to achieve their own goals, and be recognized for their success.
Current Area Coordinator and ex-LDP player, Nasiphi Khafu (right) just earned a spot on the senior Eastern Cape women's team. Congrats, Nas!
The PPI-SA Hall of Fame will grace our office’s walls for the duration of our program’s existence and will grow each year as more of our players receive recognition outside of our organization. The number of people who have grown through our program, and who are currently playing, is astonishing. We walk into our league games, and our office staff is quick to point out, “He played PSP, he played LDP, she played LDP…” and our staff keeps on pointing out the many PPI-SA graduates who still grace our basketball courts as either players and/or coaches. We hope to continue grooming our players for further successes, basketball and non-basketball alike, seeding the community far and wide with life skills savvy, positive role models.
Filed under Global, South Africa
Today’s blog is written by PPI – South Africa Life Skills Coordinator Ntobeko Ngcamu and Basketball Operations Manager Mtu Zulu, reporting from Umbumbulu.
PSP and LDP participants at the end of a successful clinic.
The Umbumbulu Leadership Development Program (LDP) team held an amazing coaching clinic for area Primary School Program (PSP) participants at Tobi primary school on the 23rd October. The Saturday morning was overcast as the coaches and staff members began the clinic at 11:00. Regardless of the weather promising rain, almost 40 area youth (representative of all four PPI-SA participating schools) gathered at the Tobi Primary School basketball court, ready to have the first ever PPI-SA Umbumbulu Primary School Basketball Clinic.
PPI-SA’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) team arrived on time to register the players and set up for the day’s activities. Once all 40 PSP players were registered, the LDP players reviewed the plan of the day and made sure everyone, players and staff members, were ready.
PSP participants line up for speed and agility drills.
The day started with a famous ice-breaker, lead by Basketball Operations Manager and LDP coach Mtu Zulu and helped by other Umbumbulu coaches, Life Skills Coordinator Ntobeko Ngcamu, and coaches Sihle and Qino. Kids formed lines on the court, kicking and opening side to side. Afterwards, Ntobeko welcomed the participants, before handing the program over to the LDP players to run the clinic activities.
Kids were divided into five groups of 10 and lined up on each sideline. We started with speed and agility drills and proceeded to teach ball handling, dribbling, passing, shooting. Each skill was demonstrated, practiced, then turned into a fun competition.
To close the event we had one LDP player, Phumla Makhanya, share her involvement with PPI-SA – what were her challenges and what she has achieved, and hopes to achieve, so far. Her parents originally did not want her to join or play basketball, the reason being she was a young girl doing grade 5 and not allowed to participate in any after school activities. She asked the school principal and other teachers to plead her case to the parents. Eventually she joined the team and was happy.
Qino, a local coach, with Phumla, an LDP player who would share her experiences with the children in attendance at the end of the event.
In grade 6, however, she broke her arm and stopped playing for the entire season. She rejoined the PPI-SA family the next year and from there, she says, “She never looked back.” Her achievements in basketball include playing spots on both the District and Provincial teams. She tells the kids she would not have achieved what she has without listening to her coach in life skills, and she continues to say that the life skills learned through PPI-SA help her to face high school challenges. ”I used the knowledge I gained in PPI-SA life skills to make informed decisions, especially when receiving peer pressure from my classmates.”
Her current goals include earning a spot on the SA National team, finishing matric (Grade 12) and attending the University of Cape Town to study Sport Management.
At the end of the day, the lessons learned by the coaches were many. They learned to plan and organize an event, and learned the importance of preparation and the value of crowd control, which proved a challenging task throughout the day. Lastly, the coaches learned the value of giving clear, precise instructions to the participants.
We hope to continue hosting clinics as a medium for our coaches and players to learn more facilitation techniques, and our players to learn more about the game of basketball!
Filed under Global, South Africa
Taylor Brown recently joined the PPI-South Africa team as its newest Fellow. Below, he describes PPI-SA’s experience in Durban’s “Sustainable Cities Exhibition.”
Can Durban become Africa's most caring and livable city?
This past Friday, Claire, S’bo and I attended the “Sustainable Cities Exhibition” at the Durban Exhibition Centre. The event celebrated the release of the book Innovations in Local Sustainability: Good Practice from eThekwini, a collection of case studies featuring innovative organizations and projects furthering social, environmental, agricultural and cultural sustainability.
Presenting 'Innovations in Local Sustainability: Good Practice from eThekwini' at the Sustainable Cities Conference
The book is the work of Imagine Durban, a council-led project for integrated long-term planning that is being implemented in conjunction with Sustainable Cities, a Vancouver-based NGO, and The Plus Network, a network of 35 cities that collaborate with one another on sustainability planning. Imagine Durban’s mission is to develop a visionary plan that can inspire citizens, NGO’s, businesses and government to work together to make Durban Africa’s most caring and livable city. Funding for the project is from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
S’bo was interviewed for the project and four pages of the book detail PPI-SA’s mission, history, accolades, programs and outreach efforts into Durban and its surrounding townships. As this book is expected to be read by many in, around, and even outside Durban, this is a fantastic opportunity to create positive awareness and publicity for PPI-SA and to build relationships with other like-minded NGO’s and the eThekwini Municipality. Additionally, the book will be submitted to an International Municipality Competition to be held in Canada later in the year.
As mentioned previously on this blog, a significant topic of conversation in and around Durban is the city’s expected bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, following its successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup this past June and July. The 2020 Summer Olympics host city will be announced in mid-2013 and South Africa’s Sports & Recreation Department has the task of putting its pitch together for the IOC over the course of the next 3 years. Sustainability, specifically environmental sustainability, is a hot button topic for the IOC, and Durban is establishing a competitive advantage there with Imagine Durban. We look forward to monitoring the project’s progress and hope the IOC is paying close attention!
Filed under Global, South Africa
