England Cricket Captain Interested in Botswana Sports Development

Local girl Bontsi Morewane had an additional treat during her recent training in the UK when she met England Cricket captain Michael Vaughan, who showed real interest in the progress of sport in Botswana.

Morewane has just returned to Botswana from a month long stay in the UK as part of her induction into the King’s Foundation, the UK Christian sports charity that has a growing presence and influence on grass routes sports development in Botswana. It was during a visit to one of King’s development camps in UK that Bontsi was introduced to Vaughan.

“It was a great thrill to meet Michael Vaughan, he was a gentleman and he showed a real interest in my role with King’s in Botswana. Hopefully he will one day visit Botswana to introduce his cricket development programme for children that he runs in partnership with King’s” said Morewane.

Morewane’s development role with King’s includes her recruiting and training Batswana sports coaches to work on King’s Camps, the BNSC supported sports and activity camps held in Gaborone and Francistown during the school holidays. A new season of camps for 5-17s is about to start, with as many as 350 children and young people attending the camps at Northside, Westwood and Clifton schools.

King’s Botswana Director Matt Loewen points to the growing number of children benefiting from the activity camps, “if children’s energy and enthusiasm can be channelled into sport and other positive activities at an early age, there is growing evidence that it will keep them from negative social activities in later life”.

King’s have been working in Botswana since 2002, providing free programmes to thousands of children in communities like Old Naledi and Monarch, training hundreds of leaders in sports outreach and providing sports development for children through King’s Camps.

For further information contact:

Matt Loewen, Botswana Director for The King’s Foundation

botswana@xt.kingsfoundation.org

Francistown Group Capture National Award

The Rothe Kids Club in Francistown was one of the winners in the first annual national awards that recognises groups and individuals involved with sports outreach.

Rothe scooped the P1,000 award for their outstanding work with children in disadvantaged communities in Francistown. Botswana National Sports Council Development Manager Seitshiro Matlala presented the award and praised the group, “they can be very proud of their achievement because they are using sport to make a real difference to children’s lives”.

The King’s Foundation, the UK based Christian Sports Outreach charity, is the organisation behind the awards and in addition to the Best Project for 2007 category, there were categories for Outstanding Achievement in 2007 and Best Volunteer in 2007. King’s Botswana Director Matt Loewen said “it’s a real thrill to be able to reward volunteers that give their time and energy to developing children because their work often goes unrecognised”.

John Kahindi won the outstanding Achievement Award for managing to balance a number of different sports outreach commitments and Farai Bobo won the Best Volunteer category for demonstrating King’s leadership values in his work, both received MP3 players.

The King’s Foundation is committed to developing children throughout Botswana via its outreach programmes in communities like Old Naledi and Monarch and King’s Camps, sports and activity camps that provide Batswana sports coaches with paid employment opportunities.

John Kahindi – Special Achievement Award

Rothe Kids Club – Project of the Year

Farai Bobo – King’s Foundation Volunteer of the Year

National Sports Leadership Conference

From 20th-23rd August 100+ delegates from around Botswana and neighboring countries converged on Maru-a-Pula School for The King’s Foundation’s first National Sports Leadership Conference. Sessions ran all day with specialized sports sessions in the morning, classroom workshops in the afternoon, team challenges / competitions in the evenings and relaxed group sessions after supper. Participants ate and slept at the host school so by the end of the 4-day conference many new relationships had been formed. Everything came to a close on Thursday with a march to the National Stadium, final team competitions and a final awards ceremony.

One of our local papers (Daily News) covered the event. Click here to read the article.

Click here for pictures from the conference.