NEWSFLASH: Kids Win 2010 World Cup

I can’t believe the World Cup’s finally finished ... and what a roller coaster it’s been. Normally I live and work in Kampala, Uganda where I’m the Communications and Fundraising coordinator with Viva’s Africa office. But in June I travelled to South Africa to be involved in a day camp programme called Keep Them Safe, which Viva’s network in South Africa is helping roll out to make sure local kids stay safe during the heightened risk of trafficking and abuse that’s followed the FIFA World Cup here. Keep Them Safe was held in 13 communities around Cape Town, and reached more than 1000 kids each day!

South Africa wasn’t entirely as I had expected it to be. Wearing two pairs of socks, having porridge for breakfast each morning and seeing snow capped mountains in the distance -- the weather in the Western Cape was not quite the World Cup ‘summer’ I had in mind when planning my trip here! However, I simply cannot complain about the cold, especially when some of the children we were working with turned up barefoot.


On the first day of the Keep Them Safe camps, I visited the Western Cape town of Kolenhoef. Spirits were high among the 80 or so kids who arrived for the camp, walking from their homes in the surrounding farmland. In this community, some of the extremely poor families live in makeshift shacks on the land of the farmer they work for. The volunteers were excited too …if a bit nervous about running a fulltime programme for four weeks. 260 local volunteers have come together to help make Keep Them Safe possible.

The children were then given a taste of the different activities they could take part in. Each camp ran four programmes: sport, arts and crafts, performing arts, and entrepreneurship. At the end of that first day we ended with a lunch of bread and coffee. Yes, coffee for all! “This is all we have to give them,” explained one of the volunteers. But just as we were finishing serving all the kids, the local council truck pulled up with six buckets of soup. The volunteer’s faces lit up with surprise, and all the children were warmed up nicely by the second course of lunch.

Each different camp ‘owned’ its programme, rolling out the essentials of the Keep Them Safe manual with their own unique flare. At the same time there were elements of each activity that highlighted the networking involved in Keep Them Safe and that they were part of a whole community of 13 camps. So what did we actually get up to?

The Entrepreneurship teams were the first to demonstrate the power of working together. What better way to do this than by making a community go kart and racing against each other?! Kolenhof’s young builders were sent on a treasure hunt that led them to a local company who paid for basic construction materials. Back at base camp, they found additional materials that improved their high-speed vehicles. Our Entrepreneurs learned valuable lessons in presenting themselves in a corporate situation and looking for opportunities around them to build upon.

Kolenhof's Arts and Crafts team was somewhat calmer than its Entrepreneurship team throughout the four weeks. After making bracelets, they designed cheerleader outfits for the Go Kart Race with recycled material, and finally had fun making a giant community vuvuzela. They also painted a banner in the shape of a puzzle piece that fits with other pieces from the other camps, to be unveiled all together as a giant artistic testament to networking at the town hall.

Then last Saturday the race was on. The serenity of the beautiful Jonkershoek nature reserve was shattered by the cheers and shouts of 1200 youth ‘engineers’, cheerleaders and supporters from our 13 camps. Points were awarded for teams with the most times around the track (by pushing, sliding when the wheels broke or carrying the smallest child to be found on whatever piece survived when a kart fell apart!), spirit of the community as a whole, and finally, not giving up. These prizes were awarded by the local council at the closing ceremony. And the soup kept coming … the generosity of the local council became overwhelming when each day more than enough was delivered.

The Performing Arts teams all took part in a talent competition. Each team performed a 30-minute act on the topic of human trafficking, domestic violence, substance abuse, or child abuse. A highlight for me was a play that included young children wearing ‘For Sale’ signs, advocating against the local practice of selling children into labour. Grown-up community members were so grateful for the chance for their children to be on stage. For the performers, seeing their photographs on the big screen as their act was introduced, having their art work displayed and being listened to and judged showed that they were valued and important.

What about the Sports team? Keep Them Safe is about more than just … well, keeping them safe. Our goal was to build a lasting support network that would keep kids coming back. Making sure South African children are safe for the long term is vital, and the coordination team is looking at ways to continue to keep building up the local volunteers and keep encouraging the communities to reach out and help one another for a brighter future in South Africa. This process will be kicked off by a sports day in September to allow community teams that have been formed to compete against one another. They’re calling it ‘Keep Them Active’ – building up a generation of youth who know the power of working together and advocating for themselves.

If you were near Stellenbosch Municipality Town Hall on Friday night, you would have seen a spectacular closing ceremony. This one was, in a way, more important than the one that went on Sunday night, when a few unimportant men in red t-shirts manhandled a golden trophy. At our ceremony, more than 1000 children were the winners and they celebrated by unveiling hand-made banners, receiving prizes, thanking their partners, performing plays, singing, dancing, partying and possibly angling for another cup of soup.


~ E. in Stellenbosch


Keeping kids safe is at the core of what Viva does. Find out more at www.viva.org/qualitycare