Tag Archives: Umbumbulu

by | December 18, 2012 · 5:18 pm

Top Moments of PPI-SA 2012

Participants in their Sasol gear at the City Wide Tournament

Participants in their Sasol gear at the City Wide Tournament

PPI-SA was able to host many events this year, and we would like to take an opportunity to highlight the best of the year 2012.  PPI-SA can sometimes face unconventional and unique circumstances that can make even a simple basketball game a challenge. The staff at PPI-SA work extremely hard and often have to overcome many obstacles in order to make our program successful. This is a tribute to the staff and participants of PPI-SA who came together to overcome adversity to make sure our program continued to thrive.

City-Wide Tournament 2012

This was our biggest and most exciting event of the year. Girls and boys teams from our primary school program came together at Hoy Park in Durban for the  22nd semi-annual CWT. We hosted over 800 participants at the venue! Sasol was a huge sponsor for us and donated hats, t shirts, and water bottles to every participant. The Brooklyn Nets, a United States professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association, was recognized at the tournament for their investment in PeacePlayers. Highlights included over 30 LDP participants who were selected as our best leaders from the LDP program to help run and coach the tournament, VCT (voluntary counseling and testing for HIV) provided by Zoe life, Adidas kit given to most outstanding participants, and the PPI-SA song “I’m a PeacePlayer” wrap performed by Thobani Khumalo. Thobani’s original song resonated with so many of our participant’s; you couldn’t go to a school without hearing the song being sung by someone!

LDP Olympics

LDP Olympics in Umbumbulu!

LDP Olympics in Umbumbulu!

The LDP Olympics was a creative idea to change up our LDP events.  We put participants through a variety of individual skills tests and added up total scores to find a winner. There were 10 events total, and we ran LDP Olympics in each of our areas. PPI-SA was able to give out some nice prizes and we made a lot of our participants smile. It was some of the most fun we had all year. The participants in Umbumbulu went through these events with so much passion and energy; it was a really special day for all of them. Thanks to Kyler McClary for his creativity in planning these events.

LDP Extravaganza

This year we made an effort to innovate and refine our LDP events. Our LDP extravaganza in Umlazi was a great example of this. Girls and boys teams came together from 4 areas to play shorter, more intense games. We had the tournament be a more round robin style, so each team was exposed to all the other areas, rather than just one other team. This maximized our goal of bridging divides among these communities with players getting the opportunity to play teams from every area multiple times. We also held a skills session where we mixed the teams together to work on basketball fundamentals. We ended the day with new and unique life skills activities from Bridges of Hope, where participants were asked to really think truly about what they want in the future, and how important it is to have a vision in life.

Bridges of Hope Training

We were very lucky to have the opportunity to be trained in an award winning and innovative Curriculum called Bridges of Hope. Christy Joy Webster, master trainer and facilitator, trained the entire PPI-SA staff and coaches in this curriculum that focuses less on the basic information of HIV/AIDS and more on how important it is to value yourself. If you value yourself and realize how important your future is, you will be more likely to make healthy decisions. PPI-SA has been looking to refine our life skills curriculum in past years, and these activities can be truly life changing. We are so grateful to Christy joy Webster for being a passionate, caring, and amazing facilitator!

PPI-SA staff after completing the Bridges of Hope Training

PPI-SA staff after completing the Bridges of Hope Training

A genuine thank you goes out to all PPI-SA staff and participants that made these events possible. We hope for even more fun and exciting events in 2013!

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by | October 16, 2012 · 3:16 pm

The Olympic Spirit in PPI-SA

LDP Olympics in Umbumbulu

People around the world were awed and inspired by this year’s Olympic games in London. Over the school holidays in SA, PPI brought our own Olympic spirit to our LDP program.

PPI-SA is traditionally known for hosting area vs. area games in our Leadership Development Program, and we always embrace the team concept in our events.  This past week, we decided to have some fun and bring our participants a new style of event, called “LDP Olympics.” The idea, inspired by PPI-SA fellow Kyler McClary, put participants through 10 events that tested their overall individual basketball skill set. Participants earn points for each event, and at the end of the day, winners received prizes. This style of event created great energy and competitiveness among the players.

Some of the events included hot shot, one v one, rebounding, shooting, dribble knockout, a basketball skills course, and the always entertaining “half court shot” to end the day.

During this event, Umbumbulu’s passion for basketball captivated our staff. They made it better than we could have imagined. Participants worked hard in every event, and pushed one another to be their best and compete. In basketball and in life, that’s how you make people better; the kids in Umbumbulu understand and embrace this concept.

One of the highlights for coaching staff and players was the “Sportsmanship” award, which we gave out to the player that showed the most enthusiasm, positive attitude, and heart. It came down to a final shot for 3rdplace, and Mzokhona Zungu ended up just missing

Mzokhona Zungu celebrates victory after winning an event during the LDP Olympics

his shot off the rim. The disappointment showed all over his face. When he was announced as the winner for the sportsmanship award, the last award of the day, he burst out with a mix of surprise and happiness, followed by a few tears that fell down his cheek. When you work for PPI, these are the moments that capture your heart. It may not have been a gold medal, but to Mzokhona, it meant everything.

In Umlazi, LDP point guard Sphelele Mpungose  represented women’s basketball in PPI by taking home first prize- finishing in front of all her male counterparts and winning almost every event. She is a talented and humble player with natural ability and great potential.  She has a wonderful attitude and we hope to keep her around in the PPI-SA program. Another highlight from Umlazi included 4 PPI-SA coaches taking part in the Olympics in a “coaches division”. These coaches competed in all 10 events and had a lot of fun doing it! Umlazi LDP coach Speh took home the gold.

Sphelele Mpungose (2nd from right) celebrates her first place prize with the office staff.

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by | September 25, 2012 · 2:26 pm

Welcome to South Africa: Court Spotlight

Bazamile School, Molweni

Nestled deep in the Molweni Valley, rugged hills and towering cliffs rise over the basketball court at Bazamile. Don’t let its remote location fool you, the kids that call this court home are among the most passionate hoopers in all of PPI-South Africa. Though Molweni already had a Leadership Development Programme (LDP) team, it practiced “at the top of the hill”, referring to the area of Molweni that sits on the slopes and ridges overlooking the valley. In an area where walking is generally the only transport available, the players “at the bottom of the hill”, in the valley, found it difficult to attend the LDP sessions. That’s when the players in the valley decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own LDP team. Molweni Area Coordinator Sifiso Mthembu helped the players get their team up and running and volunteered to coach them for the year in addition to performing his normal duties as Area Coordinator. Bazamile is the home court for the “bottom of the hill” LDP team, which fields both a boys and a girls side. The court is also home to Bazamile School’s boys and girls primary school teams. Members of the boys LDP team are featured in the photo above.

Ngongomisa School, Umbumbulu

To get to Umbumbulu, you drive and then you keep driving. A rural community spreading out over the rolling hills southwest of Durban, it is common to arrive at practice here to find half the team munching on sugarcane, which is seemingly in infinite supply in the region. Just as an American kid might twist open a bottle of Gatorade before practice, the kids in Umbumbulu peel off the tough exterior of the cane stalk with their teeth in order to get to the sweet, crunchy, sugary interior. It’s a nice after-school snack as they prepare to take the court for practice or games. Ngongomisa School sits at the end of a dirt road on top of one of the areas many hills. The scenery could attract tourists in droves, but it’s the basketball that brings the students of Ngongomisa to the court. On this particular day, 20+ boys and girls from Ngongomisa participated in a basketball practice that maintained incredible energy and enthusiasm from start to finish, while an additional 10 students watched and cheered their classmates on the court (sugarcane hanging from their mouths, of course). I can’t take my eyes off the views, they can’t take their eyes off the game.

Ndongeni School, Umlazi

Ndongeni is situated in the M section of Umlazi, the biggest township in the Durban area and the 2nd largest in all of South Africa. With a population of over 700,000 people, Umlazi is a far cry from the picturesque landscapes of some of the rural areas in the PPI programme. Life in Umlazi, like many townships, isn’t always easy. High levels of poverty, unemployment, crime, HIV, and drug and alcohol abuse plague many of Umlazi’s communities. Combined with a very limited infrastructure that has only recently begun seeing development, Umlazi can be a difficult place to grow up. PPI’s many basketball courts in Umlazi, including the one pictured above at Ndongeni Primary School, provide a sanctuary for kids from the day-to-day grind of life in the township. Ndongeni is the home court for four PPI teams — the boys and girls teams from the primary school and the Umlazi boys and girls LDP teams (high school). For the LDP teams, practice ends when the sun goes down, but practice always seems to end prematurely in the eyes of the players here. One gets the sense that, if the court had lights, these kids might just play here all night.

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by | April 17, 2012 · 1:32 pm

Project Management and Statistics Highlight the First LDP Home Games!

LDP players prepare for LDP weekend.

This past weekend, on Saturday April 14, 2012, PPI-SA held its first round of official home and away games for its 2012 Leadership Development Program. Umlazi had home court and hosted Molweni at Sapphinda Primary School. In the other girls and boys games, Lamontville hosted Umbumbulu at Bhekaphambile Primary School. Being the first LDP games since our season opening LDP tournament, all participants were eager to play some basketball!

However, two of our teams were able to get some game action in before Saturday.  PPI-SA LDP Boys teams from Lamontville and Molweni represented PPI-SA in the Durban High School Easter Tournament, where high school teams throughout Southern Africa competed for the title. It was a great experience for 2 LDP teams to compete, and we applaud the effort of PPI-SA coaches for getting their teams into the tournament, as funds and transport are a consistent challenge that our areas face.  The teams were able to play 4 games against a variety of opponents. It is an achievement in itself to have PPI-SA, and its respective communities, represented in these larger national tournaments!

In LDP, more emphasis is put on community outreach projects and fundraising in order to build leadership skills and create more awareness of PPI-SA in the local communities.

Week 1 of the LDP Home and Away games consisted of a life skills portion and basketball games.  The Life Skills was an information session focused on project management and planning.The players were given basic project management skills and important steps for planning successful community outreach events, which will count toward their team’s point totals at the end of the semester. It is the hope of PPI-SA that these kinds of projects will hone vital skills and our participants will be able to use these experiences in LDP to help them in the “real world”.

Area Coordinator Sifiso helped execute the LDP weekend hosted in Lamontville

In addition, for the first time in both girls and boys games, a pilot was done to take individual statistics for field goals, free throws, rebounds, assists, turnovers, blocks, and steals.Individual statistics are an underdeveloped function of basketball here in SA. Individual and team statistics reveal an incredible amount about the game and the players themselves. Statistics will be given to each LDP coach to relay to their team. The statistics will help show where the teams need improvement, and help our LDP program grow as a whole. The pilot was a first step and served as a baseline, in which we will continue to improve our methods to make statistics more relevant in the LDP program.

We thank everyone involved in this weekend’s activities and look forward to the second round of games for LDP in the coming weeks.

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by | April 10, 2012 · 3:03 pm

Mapping PeacePlayers’ Communities


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PeacePlayers International (PPI) works in many different communities in each of its program sites. These communities are  selected based on a number of different characteristics: geography, demographics, urban-rural setting, and even proximity to other participating PPI communities.

However, where PPI aims to facilitate the greatest impact is in underprivileged and deeply conservative areas – those most resistant to change. In this way, PPI envisions its young people radiating change, influencing first their friends and family, then their neighbors and schools, and finally, the institutions that can formally embed progress at the regional and national levels.

Check out maps of our program sites and some of our Community Spotlight posts to get a better idea of how PPI creates change agents from some of the most disadvantaged communities in Cyprus, Israel and the West Bank, Northern Ireland and South Africa.


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by | November 1, 2011 · 1:33 pm

Leadership Development Programme League Wraps Up

From the onset, Molweni’s LDP teams dominated the basketball court with offensive precision and defensive prowress.  Their ability to play as a team on and off the field for the past three months earned them first place with a vast margin of victory.  Umbumbulu followed in 2nd place, Umlazi in 3rd, and Lamontville in 4th.

The LDP league consists of several categories, each division able to earn points for their team and area.  Teams earn points individually for wins and losses and as an area for best weekly attendance and successful community projects.  This time around, Umbumbulu, generally the area with the  least consistent attendance due to extensive travel to area schools and basketball courts, earned first place in semester attendance.  The dedication, in the end, paid off.  In the last week of program activity, Umbumbulu hosted two community projects, earned highest weekly attendance, and won 3/4 last games to earn 2nd place in the LDP league. Well done, Umbumbulu!

Umlazi and Lamontville also improved their performance in the last weeks of semester, increasing attendance and keeping the attendance at a consistently high percentange, an issue we’ve had to battle with for years.

A side bit of information down here in South Africa, 12th grade seniors are pressured to perform exceptionally well in the classroom to earn high Matric exam results; if they fail, the rest of their life might as well be spent on the streets.  ‘Matrics,’ (Seniors), quit all extra curricular activities and focus purely on studies, spending every extra hour and weekend in the classroom preparing for exams.  At the end of the exam period, each Matric student’s grades are posted in the major newspapers.  In America, scores are posted by school, allowing districts to proudly boast, if the case, their testing scores.  In South Africa, Matric results are posted by the individual’s names.  This practice has sparked major controversy recently.  Unfortuantely, many failing Matric students, having seen their results broadcasted for all to read, commit suicide under the mounting pressure and embarrasment.

As the LDP program, we preach a healthy balance of academics and extra curriculars, in hopes all our students are able to manage their time effectively.  Our matric participants usually attend when they can, though have shown a vast improvement in attending our practice, events, and community projects, all in the name of earning points for their LDP area.

The LDP players are off until program resumes in February.  In the mean time, they’ll be studying hard and competing to participate in provincial and national tournaments. Congratulations to our participants and good luck in the rest of the semester!

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by | October 18, 2011 · 1:48 pm

Rural Program Area Spotlight: Umbumbulu

Female elementary school players play on the dirt covered basketball court in front of the entire school body.

‘Umbumbulu,’took me about a year to say properly.  Even now, when I pronounce the name of our rural programme, I must sound weird to all those who are listening.  Umbumbulu is one of our two rural programmes at PPI-SA, where we host four elementary and one high school programme.  The children walk miles to school every day, on top of grueling basketball practices three days a week. Most of the participants play either barefoot or in their school shoes.  Fortunately, yet oddly, adidas years past donated soccer cleats to our organization.  Though we do not teach nor play soccer, our high school players have played in the cleats for the past year, opting to play on the hard, bubbly surface than baring their feet to foreign materials on the basketball court.

Players in the adidas cleats, school shoes, and in their bare feet, all ready to play for the entire school.

The drive to Umbumbulu from the office is about 45 minutes, not including the pick up and drop offs of coaches who live outside 10 km’s of the schools.  Last week we clocked 179 kilometres.  The scenery includes plush, rolling hills, spectacular dams, and grazing cattle that happen to halt traffic as they warm themselves on the one, main road’s pavement.  Our trusty Toyota braves the pot hole filled dirt roads and climbs up 75 degree hills.  How the car is still working requires a miraculous explanation.

For the amount of times I’ve prayed while driving to survive the trek, never have I doubted Umbumbulu’s commitment to the PPI program and, specifically, the schedule of the day.  One cannot help if a taxi (form of public transport for all SA residents) blows a tire, thus an hour late to an event.  Though I’m always amazed the players willingness to walk the 8k trek to the community court.  The school representatives and principals pay out of pocket to transport the players ($7 to cramp our players into the back of an open truck bed) to community games and our most recent event, our 19th City-Wide Tournament. No matter the way, the job gets done; and exceptionally well, with the entire school ready to support.

Ntobeko Manzi, ambassador of Umbumbulu and our Life Skills Manager, is beyond proud of the Umbumbulu participants:

“Umbumbulu is known as the poorest and most uneducated area within KZN [KwaZulu-Natal province].  Yet last year, when our Grade 12 Matrics (Seniors) graduated, our participants earned the highest marks possible. High five to us, then, eh?”


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by | June 28, 2011 · 2:04 pm

A PPI – SA Player Turned Coach Testimonial

2007 Leadership Development Program team. More than half of those pictured are still with PPI-SA today as either a coach or Area Coordinator.

In celebration of our ten year anniversary, we asked several of our current and past participants to write about their personal journey through Playing for Peace/PeacePlayers International.  Albeit a powerful story, the following participant wanted to remain anonymous.

My four years with PPI-SA 

I started coaching for PPI in 2005 and continued to work as a coach and life skills facilitator until 2008.  It was a great experience for me.  I have learned a lot of skills, including: coaching, facilitation, disciplining, and communication.  Interacting with people makes me feel at ease.  I have gained confidence to speak in public and run courses, including the one I run as a ICDL trainer.  I also manage uThongathi ICT Centre, which comes with a lot of responsibilities.

Leadership Development Program players in 2008. Player on the right is current Area Coordinator and PPI-SA superstar, Nasiphi Khafu.

Many of the skills I learned while coaching at PPI-SA helped me when I was studying towards my national diploma in IT.  Some of the things I learned from PPI have made me gain self esteem.

PPI does not only focus on playing basketball, but touches people’s lives in every way while having fun.  PPI is a good enrichment programme which develops our youth nationally, especially in townships and rural areas where I was based.  There are few or no sport facilities for the youth.  It made a big difference in our community to have PPI-SA in Umbumbulu.

I was surprised to be called by some of my players that I used to coach three years ago.  They were calling to inform me about their Matric results.  They were impressed with their performance and their placements at tertiary institutions.  For players to remember me after all these years shows me that I am their role model.  They made me feel proud.

I say PPI-SA gave me a strong foundation for my future.

Let us take these 10 years as a foundation towards the future and we will not stop pushing forward in making a positive difference in all we interact with.  Let us look forward to the many, many more years to come.

PEACE

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by | April 5, 2011 · 1:19 pm

Denis Wucherer Visits PPI – South Africa’s Leadership Development Program (LDP)

Coach Denis Wucherer about to lead the LDP players in a warm up drill.

This past weekend, our Leadership Development Program (LDP) teams competed against each other for both home and away matches.  Our point system is full steam ahead, as the high school students race and compete against each other in various categories. As each area is split into a boys and a girls team, the league allows the areas to earn points in various categories with each category ranging in value: three points for each win and one point for each loss, two points for highest AREA attendance, five points for every R500 earned (R500 is about $75), and another five points for every community service project organized. So far, the LDP area of Molweni is dominating as both boys and girls are undefeated.

As much as we want to develop our high school participants into the most skilled basketball players in the KwaZulu Natal region, we also want to stress community pride and the ability to work together as a team to raise enough funds to sustain program activity.  As incentive for our players to serve as leaders on the court and in their neighborhood, players earn points through individualized score cards his or her coach will award twice throughout the semester. The scorecards allow the players to see how they rank in shooting, passing, teamwork, and coachability, among other categories. At the end of May, the players with the most points will earn All Star status and compete against any PPI-SA alum (player, coach, staff member) at our 18th annual CityWide Tournament in our first All-Star vs Alum match.

Coach Wucherer with son in hand while speaking to our LDP players.

Program areas Molweni and Umlazi played host to this past weekend’s games because they had earned the most points thus far. The incentive proved beneficial as Molweni swept Lamontville and the Umlazi boys pounced on visiting Umbumbulu.  Umbumbulu, despite losses however, has climbed up the ranks by winning the 2pt attendance every single week since March.

Luckily this past weekend, Taylor Brown arranged for friend and our weekly pick up teammate, Denis Wucherer, to speak to our LDP players.  Denis has played professionally for the German national team and has coached various pro teams throughout the world.  He spoke of his journey and the necessity of teamwork to accomplish individual and team goals.  Despite the Zulu and English language barrier, our kids listened intently and enthusiastically participated in the drills Wucherer put our 50 players through.

We hope more guest speakers will visit our games through the end of our season in October. We’ll keep you up to date on community projects and fundraising initiatives as the work hard will continue in the upcoming months.

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by | February 8, 2011 · 1:39 pm

2011 Tryouts Underway at PPI-South Africa!

Participants at Austerville Primary School playing a game of "Scramble!"

Last week, PPI-SA began 2011 tryouts for its Primary School Program (PSP) and Leadership Development Program (LDP). The turnout so far has been even greater than anticipated. Our returning participants are especially eager to resume PPI programming after last semester’s nation-wide school strike in South Africa, and our new participants are full of energy and ready to go! We’re looking for the most committed participants in these tryouts – not necessarily the best – so that we’ll know we have engaged, eager learners throughout the year.

A PPI-SA staff member leads potential participants through a dribbling drill in Wentworth.

In 2011, PPI-SA will work with 35 different schools in 7 different areas in the PSP, a total of approximately 800 participants. In the LDP, our program for high-schoolers, PPI-SA will work with approximately 100 participants in 4 different at-risk communities: Lamontville, Molweni, Umbumbulu and Umlazi.

PPI-SA is also in the process of recruiting 36 coaches, many of whom will be new to PPI-SA, and will officially become PPI-SA employees on March 1, 2011, after going through their own tryout sessions. We are also excited about our 3-day, 2-night all-staff retreat with the Spirit of Adventure in Shongweni, March 18-March 20, 2011, funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Great things to come in 2011!

PPI-SA 2001-2011: Celebrating 10 years of game time. Let’s play.

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