News - Nosy Basset

giving disadvantaged youth the mindset, knowledge, skills and support to become successful in life

7 September 2011, issue 8

Rowing, gymnastics, netball and fencing for youth empowerment

Very busy times. Our rowing, gymnastics and netball clubs are all in competition season. The busiest month iscoming up now with trips all over, including long and far trips to Durban for the rowers and to Cape Town for thegymnasts, both in the first week of October.

Nemato rowers training in team boats

Together with the challenge to get it all organised, comes the tough challenge to get it all financed. We are makingprogress and we are proud to announce one major breakthrough: after years of trying and failing, we goteverything right this time in our Lottery application for the rowing club. It is the first time ever that the Lotterywill support us directly.

Our most urgent challenge is the trip for our gymnasts to Cape Town. We are very proud and excited that 11 ofour gymnasts are selected into the Eastern Cape team to represent the province at South African GymnasticsGames. We?ll need everybody?s support to make this week long trip possible. Please donate to make this trip possible!!!

NEMATO SPORTS FEDERATION

Literacy program

With the support of the Gadra Education in Grahamstown we are busy starting a literacy program in our homework class.?? Although it is widely acknowledged that basic education should be in mother tongue, we concluded that our homework class should use English as language of education. We onlyallow the use of Xhosa in the homework class when translation is needed to make people understand.

Literacy program in homework class - (photo: Bongisani Magopheni)

In the township schools most education is in Xhosa, but the books and the exams are in English. The poor reading and writing skills in English leave the learners with a major disadvantage in their education.

We also focus strongly on preparing our members for ?Further Education and Training? (FET) education: vocational

education starting from grade 10, that offers youth excellent opportunities to get good skills that are in high demand in the South African job market, and also prepares youth much better for academic education than our township schools do. The language of education at the FET colleges is English. We have to give our members as many opportunities as possible to practice English to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills, to prepare them for FET education.

Computer programming

We started computer programming as a subject in our homework class. It is not just about offering the members a chance to have a little taste of IT as a potential career, it is also a powerful tool to practice important skills like logical thinking and working in an accurate and well structured way.

The programming language we use is KTurtle, freeware developed by the KDE community that runs on our Ubuntu and other free Linux operating systems. KTurtle is a powerful but very easy to learn educational computer language that shows fun results in just 10 minutes.

Pens, pencils, rulers and paper

We would like to thank Harry?s Printers in East London for donating pens, pencils, rulers and paper for our homework class, a very useful donation as many of the members battle at school and the homework class without these essentials.

Kowie FM

On Friday 9 September members of Nemato Rowing Club will be live on Kowie FM radio between 12:00 and 13:00 and between 20:00 and 21:00. It is on 99 dot zero Mhz in the Port Alfred area, or you can listen live worldwide on audiostream on www.kowiefm.co.za.

Sport for Social Change Network

We are proud founder member of the Sport for Social Change Network Southern Africa. The network connects organisations in 10 Southern African countries that use the powerful tool of sport to change lives of disadvantaged youth to give them a better future. The network is in a slow process to become a registered organisation that could create many more opportunities to assist its member organisations. Nemato is involved in the think tank that is guiding the process.

Food Fund

Unfortunately the cooperation with one of our main funders for the Food Fund didn?t work out as we had hope and we ended the relationship. With limited funds available, we have to reduce the meals to the basics, not the well balanced meals we would like to offer, and we only serve meals on homework class days, but great thanks to the Port Alfred Soup Kitchen and private donors for keeping us going! Without your support we would not be able to run our sport and youth empowerment program!!!

Donations are most needed:

Account Nemato Food Fund

Number 6223 335 8143

Bank FNB

Branch Port Alfred, 210917

Lottery

We are excited and proud to announce a major breakthrough in our fundraising: after years of trying and failing, we got everything right this time in our Lottery application for the rowing club. It takes a lot of patience and hard work to qualify.? You need good bookkeeping, two years of audited financial statements, and you need an application that complies strictly to all the requirements.

Lottery will help the rowing club with significant funding for courses, kit, provincial competitions and equipment. The funding will not only strongly improve the sustainability of the club but it will also improve the quality and capacity of our program. It is the first time ever that the Lottery will support us directly. Many thanks to the Lottery!!!

Coming up soon

After training in single sculls for Nemato Sculls Head in July, the rowers moved to team boats. We are preparing for the Heads Regatta in East London on the 17th of September. That is our last long distance competition. All further competitions are 2000m, Olympic distance, competitions. We?ll go to the KwaZulu Natal Championships near Durban on the 8th of? October, the Eastern Cape Championships on the 22nd of October and finally the Dam Regatta in Alice on the 5th of November.

GYMNASTICS

Eastern Cape Invitational

The Eastern Cape Invitational was the second trial competition for our gymnasts. The two days event took place on the 19th and 20th of August in Uitenhage. It is an Eastern Cape competition including gymnasts invited from other provinces.? Participants can earn a place in the Eastern Cape team that will compete at the South African Games in Cape Town in October.

Nemato gymnasts at Eastern Cape Invitational

We had 15 gymnasts participating, bringing home an impressive number of 32 medals: 15 Gold, 12 Silver and 5 Bronze!

With no sponsor and only little money in the bank account, we were very lucky to be able to participate. Some support that was offered to us didn?t materialise, leaving us at the end of the first day without food and accommodation. Quick action by Andre Hendricks, his club the Crusaders and the competition organisers sorted us out. Many thanks to them and to Stenden South Africa for transporting us!

Our winners:

? Bongani Qozi: 3 Gold, 1 Silver
? Siphamandla Baku: 3 Gold
? Philasande Mara: 2 Gold, 1 Silver
? Siphelele Qozi: 2 Gold, 1 Silver
? Siphokuhle Nyoka: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
? Liyema Nxopho: 1 Gold, 2 Silver
? Ayamangalisa Nqomfo: 1 Gold, 1 Silver
? Asemahle Trollip: 1 Gold, 1 Silver
? Aphelele Hlekani: 1 Gold
? Simthembile Bari: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
? Thando Ngoqo: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
? Aphiwe Yengeni: 1 Silver
? Lihle Nxopho: 1 Bronze
? Onke Mangele: 1 Bronze

SA Gymnastics Games

We are very proud that 11 athletes of Nemato Gymnastics Club are selected for the Eastern Cape Team to represent the province at the South African Gymnastics Games in Cape Town. It will be a week long trip in the first week of October.

The 11 gymnasts are going to compete in no less than 23 events. A great achievement for our young club!? The trip is going to be extremely exciting for our gymnasts: competing in the most important gymnastics competition in the country. For most if not all athletes it will be the first time to visit Cape Town. We?ll make sure that the gymnasts not only have a great sporting experience, but also see and experience as much as possible of Cape Town and our country. It is going to be fantastic and well deserved reward for all the hard work done the whole year. Our group will be 11 gymnasts plus 2 or 3 coaches.

Please support the SA Games team!!!

The costs for the trip are all on the account of our club.? Unfortunately we have not been able to secure any sponsorship for our gymnastics club. It is major challenge to find sufficient funding for the trip.? We hope that you will be able to contribute towards the trip.

We need your support. We can?t disappoint our talented youth after working so hard all year! Thank you very much!

Banking details

Bank name: First National Bank (FNB)

Bank address: 1 Main Street, Port Alfred, 6170

Branch (sort) code: 210917

Swift code: FIRNZAJJ

Account name: Nemato Gymnastics Club

Account number: 6222 350 5689

Jack Cheetham Award

Nemato Gymnastics Club has been shortlisted for the Jack Cheetham Award. This prestigious award is run by Murray & Roberts, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the Sowetan Newspaper. In 2006 our rowing club was the proud winner of the award. Over the years our program has become much stronger, especially in youth empowerment, and the gymnastics club has shown remarkable results in its short time in existence, but that doesn?t guarantee an easy win for our gymnastics club. The number and level of nominated clubs has strongly increased over the years. We are invited to the office of SASCOC in Johannesburg in September for a presentation. Wish us luck!

NETBALL

Bathurst friendly match

Nemato Netball Club selected 10 girls for a friendly netball match in Bathurst. They played three matches against Tigers, one of the best teams in Eastern Cape. The girls enjoyed the matches. The ten girls formed three different teams. The first team just lost. They were beaten by Tigers 30 to 28. The second team lost 11 to 7, and the third team draw 1111.? It was the nice learning experience for the girls. We want to thank Stenden South Africa for transporting us!

Coming up soon

A local league for netball clubs has not yet been established.? So long we?ll focus on friendly matches and on tournaments.? To get more match experience, we?ll try to do friendly matches with local teams on a regular base. That will get us better prepared for the tournaments.

fencing

Ingubo Fencing Club

Ingubo, a organisation in Port Alfred that helps street children, has established a fencing club. It is the second fencing club in the Eastern Cape, after we established Nemato Fencing Club earlier this year.? With two fencing clubs in the Eastern Cape we qualify for support by the National Department of Sport and Recreation.

Later in September or early in October we?ll have a meeting with the department to get going. Hopefully before the end of the year we?ll have equipment. It would be great if we can start fencing in the Christmas holiday.

There are two other groups that want to start fencing clubs in the Eastern Cape, what would give us good competition opportunities in our province. All clubs will be township based.

contact details

Nelson Mandela Township Sports Federation (Nemato Sports Federation)

Sinawo Leteane Chairperson 081 333 6393 sinawoleteane@yahoo.com representing gymnastics

Lunga Vulindlu Secretary 071 011 4166 vulindlulunga@yahoo.com representing gymnastics

Chuma Nyendwana Treasurer 078 884 5834 chumanyendwana@yahoo.com representing rowing

Jan Blom Member 073 505 9168 matinyanafund@gmail.com representing rowing

Destiny Nelson Member representing netball

Asanele Veto Member 079 357 0785 representing netball

Bongisani Magopheni Member 084 326 6699 maneli.bongisani@yahoo.com representing fencing

Zolani Fandeso Member representing fencing

NPO: 075396NPO

(Nonprofit Organisation)

PBO: 930033563 (Public Benefit Organisation)

Office: 61 Mbexa Street

Nelson Mandela Township

Port Alfred, 6170

Fax: 046 624 5242

Email: matinyanafund@gmail.com

Bank: FNBPort

Alfred, 1 Main Street, Port Alfred, branch (sort) code 210917

Nemato Sports Federation, account number 6225 665 9461

Nemato Food Fund, account number 6223 335 8143

Nelson Mandela Township Rowing Club (Nemato Rowing Club)

Qhamani Qutywa Chairperson 073 385 0079 qhamaniqutywa@yahoo.com

Zolani Fandeso Secretary 073 856 4867 zolani.nyoka@yahoo.com

Bongisani Magopheni Treasurer 084 326 6699 maneli.bongisani@yahoo.com

Odwa Quma Captain 071 964 2488 q.odwa@yahoo.com

Chuma Nyendwana Head coach 078 884 5834 chumanyendwana@yahoo.com

Jan Blom Member 073 505 9168 matinyanafund@gmail.com

Bank: FNBPort

Alfred, Nemato Rowing Club, account number 6211 024 6651

Nelson Mandela Township Gymnastics Club (Nemato Gymnastics Club)

Lunga Vulindlu Chairperson 071 011 4166 vulindlulunga@yahoo.com

Philasande Mara Secretary 079 404 2088 symbulele@yahoo.com

Bongisani Magopheni Treasurer 084 326 6699 maneli.bongisani@yahoo.com

Siphamandla Baku Captain siphamandlabaku@yahoo.com

Sinawo Leteane Coach 081 333 6393 sinawoleteane@yahoo.com

Jan Blom Member 073 505 9168 matinyanafund@gmail.com

Bank: FNBPort

Alfred, Nemato Gymnastics Club, account number 6211 024 6651

Nelson Mandela Township Netball Club (Nemato Netball Club)

Nomtha Veto Chairperson

Siphosihle Mgcokocha Secretary

Destiny Nelson Treasurer 073 131 2661

Anelisani Makeleni Captain 073 571 1102

Chuma Nyendwana Member 078 884 5834 chumanyendwana@yahoo.com

Jan Blom Member 073 505 9168 matinyanafund@gmail.com

Bank: FNBPort

Alfred, Nemato Netball Club, account number 6231 455 7242

Nelson Mandela Township Fencing Club (Nemato Fencing Club)

Chuma Nyendwana Chairperson 078 884 5834 chumanyendwana@yahoo.com

Bongisani Magopheni Secretary 084 326 6699 maneli.bongisani@yahoo.com

Zolani Fandeso Treasurer 073 856 4867 zolani.nyoka@yahoo.com

Odwa Quma Member 083 586 6596

Jan Blom Member 073 505 9168 matinyanafund@gmail.com

Bank: FNBPort

Alfred, Nemato Fencing Club, account number 6231 456 7720

Internet

website: www.matinyanafund.org.za

email: matinyanafund@gmail.com

donate: www.myggsa.co.za (make an online credit card donation!)

fundraise: www.backabuddy.co.za (fundraise for the Nemato sports clubs!)

bookmarks: www.google.com/bookmarks (we are everywhere on internet, facebook, twitter, flickr, etc, check our google bookmarks list)

Source: http://nosybasset.co.za/news/wordpress/2011/09/08/1089/

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