‘Good sports’ help others
For the past four years, members of our Sixth Form College at St Robert of Newminster have travelled to Zambia to work with a non-governmental organisation called Sport in Action,attemptingtokeepchildren in school through sports.
On the 6th July, Mrs Fowler, MrDent,MrsPeacockaswellas students from Year 12, left for Zambia.
They will visit orphanages and schools, play sports with the children and go on a safari. The sixth formers worked hard to raise money through raffles, cake sales, sponsorships and local parish donations in order to go.
Compulsory education in Zambia ends when a child reaches the age of 14, and if they want to further their learning, they have to pay.
StRobert’sworkswiththree “schools” in Lusaka: Burma school, a teaching hospital for children with special needs, and an orphanage called Fountain of Hope.
They teach a mixture of PE activities and specific sports, and Mr Dent, a regular participant in this trip, says that he “encourages the students to get involved; get stuck in, it’s all about putting a smile on their faces.”
Mr Dent said: “Every moment is memorable in a way, walking up to somewhere new, havingeveryonerunuptogreet you when they see you makes you feel good,”
On last year’s trip, the students were invited to the British Ambassador’s house for dinner and drinks.
“We were formally recognised on an international level for our work and connections with the charities.”
The success of the project is clearly visible. St Robert’s is the largest single financial donator tothe“PerfectDayFoundation” and Sport in Action. They act as a buffer between us and the schools in Lusaka – we cannot directly donate money to the areas, but we can donate to the charities and tell them where we want our money to go.
The school has directly paid for a mini bus that enables the children to safely travel to events and competitions; upgraded asbestos-ridden changing room facilities inMunaliforSiA-runactivities and bought sports equipment for the Teaching Hospital.
The Deaf Girls’ Netball team didn’t have nets which meant they couldn’t practice shooting but “even then,” Mr Dent said, “they were amazing.”
Our school is the only secondary school in the Ideals Project, the other contributors being universities.
Our fundraising enabled a man called Steven Siame to go to university in Zambia.
Steven had a bad start in life, but managed to turn it around – he became a Peer Leader, and now teaches sport for children in the Fountain of Hope. Earlier this year he visited St Roberts and shadowed some PE and Languages lessons.
He is now a Level 1 football coach and can teach the other children.
After speaking to Miss Fowler, we learned that one of his main focuses in life was to live without fear.
This has made him a great inspiration to many people in our school.
As Miss Folwer told us: “Passing on happiness doesn’t take any away from you.”