by RSS Reader
by Email
Child Development Centre
Rowing Academy
Volunteers of this project
The Child Development Centre aims at holistic development of children of all ages. It is currently primarily located at Roodeplaat dam through the Rowing Academy. It shares in many of the dreams of our Community Development Centre.
Together with the Academy for Canoe Development a project was started in June 2009 to teach children to row and develop general life-skills.
The rowing club is open to children from the whole community and the city, but a significant percentage of the children from the club come from extremely poor families in the community.
About 30 children from these seriously disadvantages circumstances is part of the club. We aim at developing these children holistically. It's not simply about learning the skill of rowing. The discipline of professional rowing couching already start to teach much-needed skills, but two afternoons a week (soon this will be four) basic lifeskills and handcraft skills is taught at the Kamcare after school center.
Furthermore we have appointed a cook as from 1 February 2011, to prepare a well balanced meal to these children as part of our holistic development, since there standard diet don't allow them to be able to practice sports or remain healthy.
Within months of a child becoming part of the project we can see the development. A world of opportunities is opened through sports, and the necessary skills to make use of these opportunities. Our dream is that these children will grow up to become leaders in various fields, giving back to the communities from which they came.
Already it is apparent that these children really excel at rowing, and already in 2009 4 of the children that are part of the development program became South African champions in their various age categories. Many seem to have an inborn talent for the sport, and couches has high hopes that some could develop into professional rowers.
We has appointed a teacher as from 1st March 2011 who can give primary attention to the children at the Development Centre. With no secondary school in the area, the school dropout rate after primary school is extremely high. Our dream is to help every child to develop holistically throughout their entire school career.