Football training by Peter Serry, MYSA, Kenya

Youths, addiction & the outdoors
February to June 2007  
PROGRAMME
1000 children attend Annual Football Tournament!
 

Girl Power - Annual Football Tournament

Celebrating International Woman's Day, you will find Pooja, Reshma, Anita, Parvati and others all huddled as a team playing football against each other. You will find the girls rejoicing the opportunity to play football in their shorts and jerseys with high knee socks tucked up in their studs! The enthusiasm that they ooze is infectious and you can't just watch without getting your throat sore cheering them.

Three years back, when the girls were enrolled in the programme, it was not difficult to sense their inhibitions about playing football, with the boys. The girls who had never held a ball, flinched with fear while catching a ball, and were comfortable for the boys to take lead, seems a distant thought today.

Having access to an open field has brought smiles to hundreds of children.

Bringing communities together- Annual Football Tournament

Our annual tournament was a major milestone as it was an event which saw a figure of 1000 attending it. It was a moment of pride for all of us in Magic Bus as this event brought together our children, their parents, our graduates from the programme, our partner organisations and our funders. The football matches were played amongst the NGO and the community project children. One couldn't miss the uproar of excitement from the children while cheering their teams. The event was a success for the programme as it saw an increase in girls participation. It was a great achievement for us as the community came together to take ownership of the event and made it a huge success. For the first time, the parents in the community were actively involved in managing the event by providing snacks and helping the staff. They enjoyed the process so much that their interest and the involvement in the programme has increased tremendously.

The tournament ended with smiles of jubiliation and stronger friendships with our stakeholders.

 

 

 

Youths, addiction and the outdoors...experiencing the Magic Bus camp

Magic Bus conducted a 5-day camp with youths addicted to substance abuse. The youths were enrolled in a one year HIV/AIDS prevention initiative taken by Salaam Balak Trust, one of our partners working with children living on he streets. The medium of the outdoors was used as a means to manage their addiction by realizing their own power of self control and enabling them to understand their true potential.

These youths live on the street, every second of their lives is at a risk, their health and hygiene is non-existent, their addiction along with the risks they meet takes them close to death on a daily basis. The camp was an intense experience for many. We would like to share with you some of their powerful heart renderings….

"Felt I made a mistake coming here, wanted to go back. I smoked, unnoticed, but was spotted by a bhaiya(mentor). He did not say anything but it made me think. I thought over it and I have controlled the smoking for 2 days. I know I will go back to the same life but it is I who has to think. In 24 years of my life, its only now, that I have experienced so much of happiness." (Dilip during one of the open sharings)

"I decided myself I want to do an activity. Initially I got scared but I realized one thing while doing an activity that in life I have left lot of opportunities. Now if life gives me a chance I will not leave any opportunity. I took mine...today" (Raja during the review of high ropes course)

"In my life whatever I have done is under the influence of other people but I feel very different as at every step during the game I decided and did it for myself. I did only that much which I felt comfortable." (Deben in open sharings)

 

 

Africa calling - Football training by Peter Serry, MYSA, Kenya

A visit to the inspiring Kenyan sports programme, Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), by our Programme Director last year resulted in Peter Serry, Director of MYSA Sports & Leadership Academy and Johan Van Gaijn from Royal Netherlands Football Academy (KNVB) visiting the Magic Bus programme.

Johan & Serry visited the communities and attended the annual football tournament. Serry conducted a 6 day training course for the programme staff covering coaching techniques, physical development of the children through sport and enhancing skills of the children. The staff was inspired and touched by Serry's training technique. The participants were inspired by his mannerism and body language on the field.

A big thank you to KNVB, Nike and UK Sport for supporting this important sharing of skills.

 

 

 

 

 


Bringing magic to yet another 554 children beyond the regular programme.

Every year Magic Bus shuts down sessions in May as most of our children go to their villages. But this year we conducted sessions for all those children who did not have a home or a family to return to. We reached out to such 554 children, in 50 sessions, from the NGOs, Community and Institutions. The children came on a weekly basis, some even twice a week for the Magic Bus session. Since these children never get the opportunity to be on our regular programme, they made the most of it during these summer sessions. Their summer was filled with lots of games, songs, activities and laughter.

Naseema, Rehman and Ibrahim's curiosity about their didi bhaiyas workplace one day brought them to the Magic Bus office. Since schools were closed due to the summer vacation, the children dropped into our office. They were fascinated by the computers and started exploring them. Watching their keen interest one of the staff volunteered to teach them basic know how's about the computer. The children eagerly attended 'class' for the next few days and spent hours trying their new found skills navigating the computer which was a thing to fear a few days before.