Today we finally made it to IMBEWU, the Non-Governmental Organization we will be working with during our time in Port Elizabeth! We started off in the office early this morning where we met the staff of the camps. We sat down with Ashley and the president of the NGO, Mike (who visited us in Switzerland). They welcomed us with some sweet bread and coke. Apparently, the South Africans would choose coke over water and it is almost the national drink.
Ashley and Mike told us more about the goals of IMBEWU. The organization started by realizing that many local kids did not have the opportunity to go to school or would not have food for lunch while they were there. IMBEWU started sponsoring kids by paying their tuition and providing meals. Eventually they expanded to run sports camps for kids when they were out of school, teach children about proper health practices and improve the leadership and business qualities of their students. They are also working on expanding their goals to keep up with the housing initiatives of the government to eliminate shacks in the country before the 2010 World Cup.
Unfortunately, some of the people who are running the organization are not educated with proper business practices of proper book keeping and budgeting. They have many grandiose ideas but are unsure of the steps it will take to follow through, and don't really have a concept of what marketing can do to gain the attention of potential donors—that's where we come in! One of our goals for the summer, in addition to helping with the sports camps, is to develop a marketing plan to attract local and international donors.
After discussing the status and needs of the organization, we split into two groups. I went with Katie, Anna, Sally and Brittany to one of the local schools to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls, while the boys and Clara went to the soccer fields to help at the holiday camps.
The room we painted hasn't had a fresh coat in almost 20 years, so we had to start by preparing the walls, scraping off the rubber cement from years and years of hanging artwork and filling in cracks with putty. Preparing the walls was an entire days work. Luckily, Anna brought her iPod so we jammed out and had some fun.
We made it back in time to watch Garrett play a game of basketball (shirtless!) with some of the kids and for me to be invited to play a game of netball with some of the girls. I had no idea what I was doing because they took all of 2 seconds to explain the rules to me. It is something like basketball, but with an ultimate frisbee/handball twist. They all clapped when I knocked the ball out of bounds one time and what I lack in Athletic ability I made up for in height. It was so much fun to join them and they were so excited to have me play along.
I had a chance to read my book and rest up before dinner when we got home and made a very yummy spinach, onion, garlic, mushroom and pepper omelet with sweet chili sauce for dinner. We joined the Swiss kids for drinks at Primi. I think we are finally starting to become better friends with them and integrate as an overall group instead of separately like we once were.
More play time with the IMBEWU kids tomorrow—SO excited!
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