Swaziland Community Sports Project

Join the Swaziland Community Sports Project to make a Real difference to the lives of so many children…and your own at the same time. Through coaching sports and helping out in the community as a whole, you’ll get to contribute to the future welfare of many young children whilst experiencing the unique and enriching culture of this mysterious African kingdom.

The children and youths of Swaziland face a number of challenges every day. About 30% of children cannot afford schooling and with an unemployment rate of about 50%, a climate has been created where children often turn to crime. With more educational opportunities and structured, productive environments, these same children will have a greater chance to live a happier and crime free life.

Volunteer your sporting skills, enthusiasm and ideas in rural communities where help is most needed!

Project Age Limit
Minimum 18 years, maximum decided on potential participants’ health

Project Requirements
This programme requires all participants to be active, so volunteers need to ensure they feel fit and able to join a project of this nature.

The Sports Programme
The programme is an OlympAfrica initiative, where the values and principles of the Olympic Association are taught to children from developing communities. Using sports as the primary medium, the programme aims to educate and encourage disadvantaged children and young adults. Specifically, HIV/AIDS issues directly affect many of the children; with very few of them attending or able to afford schooling, education about these have had to become an important and growing part of this programme.

Another principle of the project is to provide a structure and an environment in which to play, so the children will have the stimulation and direction to keep them busy during their important formative years. Sports are a fun way to get children involved and with so many talented children in Africa, you could find Swaziland’s next sporting hero!

Sports Centre
The project is located in the heart of the Lobamba region, the historical capital of Swaziland. Based alongside the National Stadium, the sports centre is appropriately placed to inspire the children to achieve and realise their goals, like their very own sporting heroes. As a constant reminder that you’re in Africa, you’ll find cows grazing on the sports pitches too!

Facilities
The Centre is not just a facility for children to play sports – it’s a community centre as a whole. There, children can play sports like football, netball, volleyball, tennis and woodball (a cross between golf and croquet). However, there are other indoor sports and social activities that children can get involved with too – such as pool, table tennis, board games and a TV lounge. It is possible for you to coach or get involved with any of the above activities; it’s just a matter of getting stuck in and organizing something with the children! In addition, if you wish to teach English or Maths, you have the opportunity to do this at the centre too.

Volunteer Role/Responsibilities
As a volunteer, you will be involved in a variety of important activities, with your main responsibility being the coordination of the sports initiatives. There are opportunities in 4 main sports (football, tennis, netball and volleyball), in which you can run daily training sessions and clinics. If you want, you can specialise in one or you can coach a whole range of sports – either way, there will be lots of excited and eager children attending your sessions to play!

Football
By far the most popular sport in Africa; football is played by children of all ages and is avidly followed across the continent, with Swaziland being no exception. On the fields you can hear them mentioning their favourite players’ names and amuse yourself as a 6 year-old boy compares himself to Peter Crouch! If you choose to coach football and share your knowledge of the “beautiful game”, then expect to have most of the children charging you down and wanting to be in your team.

Netball
Popular amongst the girls, netball is a growing game in Swaziland. However, the biggest challenge facing netball is the lack of hoops available. If you are a keen netballer and you are interested in coaching this sport, then you may face the extra challenge of needing to build your own netball courts!

Tennis
Tennis is definitely a growing sport in Swaziland and some of the children are showing great promise. With just one coach to offer assistance, more tennis volunteers would be greatly received. With the above sports in mind, you and other volunteers will organise daily training sessions, taking place after school and during school hours for those unable to attend. The centre is open all day every day, so there are always children around in need of your direction. Each day, you could have anything from 10 to 50+ children turning up, all eager and keen to learn!

It is important that you raise the awareness of your sports clinics amongst the local children, to schedule how often they can turn up and to try to manage the numbers. If you don’t, you could be swamped with lots of budding young sportsmen!

Coaches
The centre has 3 full-time coaches/coordinators, all of whom work as volunteers for OlympAfrica. One coach specializes in football; one in tennis and another is a general coordinator. You can directly assist these or run your own coaching sessions separately, however, one or all of these volunteers will be on hand to help you.

At these sessions, you are responsible for:

An exciting and popular part of your role will be to organise games, small tournaments and even sports days, just like the ones you would have done at school! It is amazing just how much fun children have racing in a sack or running in an egg and spoon race!

Community Care Centres and Primary Schools
Twice a week, you will work alongside the volunteers from the care projects to organise sports events/participation days with orphans and vulnerable children from the day care centres. These children do not have regular opportunities to engage in games/exercise and join regular sporting activities, so your work will help to benefit more and more children.

Accommodation
Our accommodation is a comfortable backpacker lodge, within easy distance of your project. Rooms are dormitory style, with you sharing your room with other volunteers. There are shared washing facilities, with all volunteers also having access to the other accommodation facilities. These include a kitchen, TV lounge, braai (BBQ) area, pool table and more. There is a restaurant opposite and the backpackers is just 2Kms from the tourist attractions in Ezulwini.

Meals
All meals are included and are prepared on a rotational basis amongst the volunteers. This means that you will get the opportunity to demonstrate your culinary skills a few times each week! A weekly shop is done to cater for all 3 meals a day, with breakfast normally consisting of cereals/toast, lunches are a packed lunch and dinner is a cooked meal.

Orientation
Upon arrival, all volunteers are involved in comprehensive orientation, which is included in your fee. This is facilitated by your project coordinator and entails:

Project Support
Throughout your stay you will have the support and guidance of experienced field-workers and coordinators, whom will provide you with competent 24-hour support and assistance.

In addition to this, you will be provided with a 24-hour emergency contact number for Real Gap in the UK, so you can speak with one of our advisers in the unlikely event of an emergency.

For further information or to secure your place on this programme, please call the Africa Team today on 01892 516 164, or email africa@realgap.co.uk