Sanibonani everyone,
Un jani? (How are you?) Ngiyaphila (I’m fine)
Another month has come and gone, and I am now halfway through my internship here in Eswatini. Since my last blog post I have been working on several different tasks in the office and at the Olympafrica Centre (OAC). We have three major events coming up that our office and OAC will be planning and hosting which includes Commonwealth Day, Futbol Net and Olympic Day Run.
Dalton and some local kids playing at the OAC
Commonwealth Day at the OAC is fast approaching as it will take place next weekend. This day will be filled with activities and sports including painting, aerobics, gymnastics, obstacles courses and draft (checkers) for all ages. Our planning and promotions are in full swing as we hope to engage the community to come out, get active and celebrate Commonwealth Day.
Futbol Net is a big event that our office and Dalton from OAC has been preparing for. Futbol Net utilizes soccer (football) as a tool to educated children and young people of the importance of values to help improve quality of gender and age. We currently have volunteers working in four different communities around Eswatini, where they go to schools and teach weekly sessions of Futbol Net. In the next few weeks, our office will be visiting theses volunteers and schools to view how the progression is going. These sessions held by our volunteers are building up to the Futbol Net Festivals that we will be hosting in each community in late March and April.
Always time for a quick work selfie
In regard to Olympic Day Run we have started our initial stages of brainstorming including the theme and dates. This event occurs in May (unfortunately after we have left) so we will continue to make small progressions toward the planning around this event.
Throughout our event planning and time at the OAC, I have been working on completing a Corporate Identity Manual for EOCGA. This manual will be useful when creating our t-shirts and promotional items for our local events and also when our organization sends athletes to national and international events.
That is all for now, I will pass things over to Busi now!
Jabu
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Hey everyone!
Getting ready for our first swim lesson
It’s just about the halfway point now and things have really picked up. I’ve been trying to drift away from being in the office all the time but still have been getting minor things done there. I’ve worked on sponsorship proposals, business plans and still have been trying to get the website up and running. Other than that, I’ve been trying to spend more time working on things for the Olympafrica Center. My ultimate goal is to help give the center structure in its daily functions so that it can be run effectively. So far, I’ve been trying to get all the paperwork done with getting members to fill out their forms to better keep track of the numbers coming in and out of the center, having volunteers fill out their availability and areas of interest for volunteering, and the basic framework including hours of operation, member, volunteer and staff roles, and general rules for the center. As I’m finishing up with that, I want to create schedules with our volunteers to run activities and go out into the schools in the area to hand out schedules to try to push for more kids to make use of the center.
Jabu inspiring the kids to participate
Carly and I have also been volunteering with an organization called All Out Africa where one of the volunteers, Bandile, from Olympafrica also volunteers. With All Out Africa, we’ve been going every Wednesday to a primary school in the area and conducting small activities with the class of around 40 kids. After running small activities to get the kids active, we then bring around 20 kids to a local spring (which is super cool because it produces natural hot water!). There’s a pool connected to the spring and that’s where we spend an hour having basic swimming lessons. It’s amazing to see these kids get the opportunity to swim as they rarely will get the chance to at home.
It’s been quite the experience so far and I’m definitely looking forward to making the best of the second half of my time here.
Until next time!
Busi/Narissa
Stay tuned for more Busi and Jabu after work adventures in our next blog post!