A PROUD HISTORY OF SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT SPORTS

Murray & Roberts is proud of its support for sports development projects and more importantly, the positive impact the finalists and winners have had on their beneficiaries and extended communities over the 38-year history of the awards.

The JACK CHEETHAM AWARD provides financial support for development projects that have a focus on sport and assist able-bodied athletes.
The LETSEMA AWARD also provides financial assistance to development projects, but to differently-abled sports and athletes.

Robust Magazine went back to the archives and spoke to some of the previous winners and finalists to find out how the awards made a difference to their organisations.

FULTON SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

The Fulton School for the Deaf is a school that provides specialised education for deaf children and has a 60-year history in striving for excellence in deaf education. The school takes children from the age of three and offers academic classes up to Grade 12. They also offer specific education for deaf learners who experience additional barriers to learning through vocational and skills-based programmes. The learners come from a variety of socio-economic circumstances, with a high percentage exempt from payment of school fees. The school relies heavily on fundraising to ensure continued excellence and superior education for their learners.

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST IMPACTFUL THINGS THAT HAS HAPPENED WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION’S COMMUNITY?
Through the introduction of triathlon and cycling at Fulton School, our learners and their families have been exposed to a whole new world of healthy, competitive sport. Perhaps the greatest impact achieved through our involvement in triathlons, is the heightened level of awareness in the triathlon fraternity to the potential and competitiveness of deaf athletes. The inclusive nature of the sport and the potential for deaf athletes to compete on an equal basis with their hearing peers, to form friendships and push each other to achieve their full potential, has resulted in awareness and social cohesion, the enormous impact of which we will never fully realise. Not only has it positively impacted our learners, but our school coach, Mr Zakes Mkhize, has gone on to introduce the sport in his own community, as well as introduce cycling in another school for the deaf in Durban. His passion for inclusive sport, for triathlon and for equal opportunities for children from many backgrounds, make him an outstanding coach and fair referee. He has also taken one of the school’s groundsmen under his wing and trained him as an assistant coach.

HOW DID THE BENEFIT THE ORGANISATION?
Since all the learners from our school who participate in triathlon and mountain biking generally come from poor backgrounds, we rely on the use of donated bicycles to give them access to the sport. We have been able to use the funds provided by the award to buy bicycle spares so that we can keep our equipment in good order for longer. We have also used it to cover all event costs that our learners participate in, as their families are unable to contribute to such expenses. We were also able to purchase all the necessary kit for our learners, as well as safety equipment such as good quality helmets, so that the children can participate professionally and safely.

WHAT IS YOUR HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR ORGANISATION AND THE WORK THAT YOU DO?
It is our hope that the deaf learners at Fulton School will continue to have opportunities to shine in the sport of triathlon. We hope that through continued hard work that some of them will achieve provincial and national colours. One of our learners was placed third in KwaZulu-Natal and we would like to see more learners excelling in this sport. It would be greatly appreciated if a sponsor could come on board to ensure the continued support of triathletes at the school, and to ensure both sustainability and growth of the sport. In addition, we hope to see expansion of the sport into more schools for the deaf.

MANDEVILLE AQUATICS DISABILITY SWIMMING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

The Mandeville Aquatics Disability Swimming Centre of Excellence was the winner of the 2013 Letsema Award. The centre’s mission is the development of swimming in Central Gauteng’s disabled communities with a focus on previously disadvantaged learners from schools for the physically disabled.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION
The majority of our members are learners with disabilities from previously disadvantaged communities and our primary objectives are to teach swimming, develop those with potential to a competitive level and then coach them towards becoming elite athletes.

WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR DAY WITHIN THE ORGANISATION? Our elite swimmers enjoy training early in the morning. They are in the water shortly after 05:00 and then at school in time for breakfast and assembly. They say the early exercise sharpens their minds and enables them to concentrate better in the classroom.

HOW DID THE LETSEMA AWARD BENEFIT THE CENTRE? The injection of guaranteed funding gave us the confidence to take a step up in the facilities we could offer our swimmers, including high performance offerings. This led to more interest in swimming as a primary sport for youngsters and was instrumental in the growth and sustainability of the club.

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST IMPACTFUL THINGS TO OCCUR IN THE MANDEVILLE SWIMMING COMMUNITY? Several of our swimmers have achieved Provincial and South African colours. This builds confidence and reflects on all the club members. Many swimmers have also done well after leaving school and are in good careers. Most of them are adamant that the self-discipline they developed through training was instrumental in overcoming challenges after school.

MANDEVILLE AQUATICS DISABILITY SWIMMING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

The Nemato Rowing Club has grown into a township-based youth empowerment organisation called Nemato Change a Life and uses sport as one of its main tools. It now has four sports clubs offering Olympic sports that were previously not available in the township: rowing, tumbling and trampoline, handball and fencing. The club won the Jack Cheetham Award in 2006.

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST IMPACTFUL THINGS THAT HAS HAPPENED WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION’S COMMUNITY?
Community members started coming to our place saying things like: “We never believed success was possible in our township, but now we see your athletes becoming national champions and competing at world championships. It gives us hope. We want to go back to education to make a success of our lives too.”

HOW DID THE JACK CHEETHAM AWARD BENEFIT THE ORGANISATION?
The award has been crucial to our survival and success. When our seed funder ran away, were without any money to run the club. The award helped us to keep going and provided a network that led us to our main funder, thereby helping us to grow and develop to where we are now. Despite the many challenges, our members have achieved both in sports and their careers. With very limited facilities, we have national champions in all our sports, African champions in gymnastics and world championship participants in gymnastics and handball. Althi, who accepted the award in 2006, received a sports bursary from the University of Johannesburg, where he became the first black captain of its rowing club. He has travelled the world as a rowing coach and has been head coach and teacher at some of the top schools in the country. He is now looking to move back to Nemato Change a Life to help address the massive challenge of unemployment in our youth.

WHAT IS YOUR HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR ORGANISATION AND THE WORK THAT YOU DO?
Our dream is to establish Nemato Youth Park, a youth empowerment and sports centre. Our vision is that it will be the home of the national tumbling and trampoline academy and offer a wide range of other Olympic sports with international potential and be able to host top-level and international competitions, bringing much-needed benefit to Port Alfred and contributing to the sustainability of Nemato.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER ORGANISATIONS WHO ARE RECENT RECIPIENTS OF THE AWARD OR WHO ARE THINKING OF APPLYING?
Count on 10 years of hard and persistent work before reaching the tipping point, from surviving to prospering, but take that challenge and dream big, because there is no greater and more humbling reward in life than knowing that most children would not have been able to reach for their dreams and hopes without you.

MANDEVILLE AQUATICS DISABILITY SWIMMING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

Waves for Change provides surf therapy programmes to vulnerable and differentlyabled young people across South Africa. The programme combines learning to surf with evidence-based mind-body therapy and is delivered by 60 trained local coaches, all resident in the targeted communities. Research with the University of Cape Town has demonstrated that the Waves for Change programme reduces violence, improves emotional regulation and capacity to cope with stress, and improves mental health outcomes.

WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR DAY?
The best part of our week is always working with our locally trained mentors. These are 18 to 28-year-olds who deliver our programmes. They build networks in their communities to refer the most vulnerable children and are transforming how surfing looks and feels along the coast of South Africa!

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST IMPACTFUL THINGS THAT HAS HAPPENED WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION’S COMMUNITY?
We now run programmes at five sites across three South African cities. Each site has never seen surfing before and is introducing brand new demographics to surfing. In 2012, we opened a programme at Monwabisi Beach. Then South Africa’s most dangerous beach in terms of water incidents and crime, Monwabisi now sees over 400 children per week surfing and has not reported a violent incident for the last 18 months. By training the community to transform the beach into a locally owned sport and recreation asset, we have created a brand new safe space for the community to enjoy.

HOW DID THE JACK CHEETHAM AWARD BENEFIT THE ORGANISATION?
In 2015, our organisation was starting up. Winning the award created visibility for us, and helped others trust our work. It also helped with vital funding at a crucial time, helping us support our locally trained community workers who deliver our programmes. The award was a game changer for us!

WHAT IS YOUR HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR ORGANISATION AND THE WORK THAT YOU DO?
Our goal is to get surf therapy prescribed by schools and hospitals operating along the coast of South Africa, and for local municipalities to use their budgets to support the cost of employing locally trained youth care workers who can provide surf therapy programmes. At all our current sites we have local agreements with education and health departments. These allow children to attend sessions as part of their school day or via a hospital referral, and for unemployed youth to receive payment to be trained by and run Waves for Change programmes. Our goal is to elevate these agreements to a national level, so we can transform how beaches are used across South Africa.