Mamkhulu

Brothers for Life in Christ 2021

December 1-5, 2014 Mamkhulu.org ran a camp for street kids at Ekukhanyeni Christian Retreat Centre near Nelspruit, South Africa. Forty boys from Daantjie and Msogwaba attended with 25 youth leaders and staff.  Our Canadian team from Reachout to Africa also attended the camp.  

 

Four years ago we started with 40 boys from the streets, to see if we could work with them to give them a future.  Of those 40 boys, there are many who are now getting on with their lives.  About 20 of the boys now have either gone back to school, moved on to jobs and have changed their lives.  The 40 new boys are starting from the beginning and we look forward to seeing them moving forward as well.  

 

Psychosocial Support Camps

In July 2012 and December 2012, psychosocial support camps were held for orphans and vulnerable children in Daantjie and Pienaar.  All the the camps were held at Sibuyile, Duma and Siyakhula Primary Schools and were day camps for the 250 children who attended. 

 

Psychosocial support camps are intensive interventions that include resilience building, counseling, fun activities and sports.  At Siyakhula, the camps are for high school students from our Hope Clubs at our various schools.  At Sibuyile, the children from our primary school Hope Clubs attend. 

 

All the camps are preceeded by training camps for the youth who lead the camps.  In July and December at total of 63 youth attended camps at 10,000 Homes in White River.  The youth are given skills in counseling, as well as provided with training and fun activities.  The goal is to prepare them for running the camps, bring them together to form a team, and to help them with their own issues and problems.  The group bonds and explores the various skills of each person so that when they work with the children, they have a wonderful programme and know how to help them effectively. 

 

 

Soccer and Psychosocial Support Camps 2010-11

A series of soccer camps was held at 12 schools in the area around Daantjie and Msogwaba, Mpumalanga Province during the 2010 FIFA World Soccer Championships in July 2010.  Another series of camps were held in December 2010 with the emphasis on psychosocial support for OVC.

 

These camps were registered as part of the Department of Social Development safety net to provide for orphans and vulnerable children this year. The camps were geared to cater for children nominated by their schools as in need of care and support during the games and Christmas break when there are no school feeding schemes. All school principals and teachers were on board to give support and make these camps a success.

Many orphans and vulnerable children were at risk during the soccer games.  Nelspruit was a venue for 4 of the games, and many foreigners and adults attended them.  With schools closed for an extended period of time, the children who normally received food at school were without support. The goal of the soccer clinics was to provide 2 meals a day for these children as well as activities to keep them occupied and safe at their schools. It also provided some income for 48 youth from the community who were hired to run the camps and some training for them beforehand. The camps were for both boys and girls and they gave all those involved new skills and an opportunity to be part of the soccer fever.

The December camps were part of an on-going programme to provide these children with food and care during their Christmas school break.  Many of the children only eat at school through the feeding programmes and without this support they have major problems.  The camps also provided psychosocial support for the children and training for the youth involved in the counseling.

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Read our latest news item about our Soccer Camp Success

 

 

Soccer and Psychosocial Support Camps

December 2010

Camps were held at the Litsemba Centre for the first weeks of December 2010.  The first camp was a training programme for 48 youth from the surrounding communities to assist them with their own psychosocial issues and to give them skills to assist the children in the schools where the camps were held.

 

The second camps were held at 6 community schools in Daantjie and Msogwaba townships.  These included soccer skills development as well providing psychosocial support to the more than 200 orphans and vulnerable children that participated. A more detailed report will be included soon.