Disney Cruise Line

Since 2006 John Kahindi has been a loyal King’s Foundation Botswana volunteer. What started with occasional weekend programmes and a failed attempt at cracking the December 2006 King’s Camps coaching roster developed into someone who conducted his own children’s programmes, was awarded our 2007 special achievement award and became a regular coach on all 2007/08 King’s Camps.

At the end of 2008 John applied for a job on Disney Cruise Line. We knew John had previously worked on a boat as kitchen staff but we did not take the opportunity too seriously as it would mean traveling to Florida, USA. As it turns out, Disney liked John’s CV and offered him a job but to his surprise they were focused on the experience he had with children through King’s Camps. After much dialogue John was hired by Disney to conduct children’s programs on their cruise ships.

In December we had the pleasure of seeing John off at the Botswana airport so that he could board his first ever airplane and begin a new chapter of his life with Disney. In a recent email John wrote, “With the money I am making I managed to buy a plot for my family. Thank you for all the help including my coaching. Disney likes my sports programs – only I don’t have enough sitting programs/ice breakers.”

King’s Foundation Botswana is having a lasting impact on the lives of children and our coaches.

Cleaning Up the City

This weekend the team in Francistown initiated a clean up campaign in the areas that they work. Instead of a regular King’s Foundation program of sports and fun activities, the children were gathered and mobilized to pick up litter in the community. This activity was very successive. “This is just the beginning; we intend to do the same for the rest of the areas in Francistown”, said the King’s Foundation Coordinator Darius Chiseni. The children now know that they have to take care of the environment in which they live. Monarch was cleaned in less than 2 two hours by 263 children of all ages assisted by the rookies that are in our leadership program.  Well done to all the children in monarch and to all the volunteers who were present. With our partnership with Rotary club the children at this location are able to get a decent meal at the end of the program.

Coaches In schools

When a session for King’s Camps finishes the coaches have little or nothing to do if they are not involved in the outreach work. The king’s foundation keeps the coaches busy and motivated by placing them in coaching positions in the schools we partner with during King’s Camps. We have three schools that have taken coaches from king’s camp. Northside has taken in two coaches one for swimming and one for Tennis. Diana is one of the swimming coaches at Northside who started off with just four hours a day and now is like a full time staff at northside. Boaboa and Broadhurst have also taken coaches from us.  This creates employment for the young people and the schools have a pool of professional coaches to choose from and they get quality services.

King’s Camps Francistown

Another great season of King’s Camps has just come to an end. During the first week of May children made their way to Clifton School for a time of fun and acquiring skills in different sports codes. This time around we did not get a manager from the UK like we have for past camps. Two local leaders managed the camp from the skills they have learnt from UK managers over the past two years. The managers were teamed up with coaches from Francistown that are dedicated and keen on improving and developing children through sports.

It was great to see parents support us with different theme days. A definite highlight from camp was having one of the mum’s volunteer to do arts and crafts activities with the children. We would like the community to get more involved in the camps as the funds we get from King’s Camps are channelled to community development work being done by the King’s Foundation in Francistown.

Since 2002 we have been working hard at developing children and future leaders in Botswana through sport. Our work is expanding to rural areas throughout the country and on any given week our sports community outreach programmes engage approximately 750 less privileged children nation wide. Any finances we raise through King’s Camps or donations allows us to continue offering such programmes.

We would like to thank Stenographix for printing all of our certificates for free since April 2008, Rotary Club for once again making it possible for less privileged children to attend King’s Camps, Clifton Primary School for the use of their high standard facilities and Mrs. Kelly for giving her time and energy towards our Arts & Crafts activities.

King’s Camps will be back at Clifton Primary School during the August and December school holidays. Please email botswana@kingscamps.org or call 72537638 for upcoming camp dates and more information on how you can get involved.

UGANDA TRIP

The moment we started our decent into Entebbe airport, everything felt different. The temperature, the humidity, the smell of the environment and even the sunset. The view outside was just the vast waters of the humongous Lake Victoria. Uganda was such a blessing to Princess and I. Kings Sports Ministry Uganda (KSM) had requested  our participation in their annual Sports Ministry Conference. We joined Luke cheeseman and Ben Thomas who are from England but have been doing sports ministry with KSM with Emmanuel being their country Leader. Rachel and Graham were also joining us from England but unlike us it was yet another visit to evergreen Uganda.

Uganda’s capital city- Kampala boasts of just fewer than 2 million people, so for us coming from little known Gaborone with 300 000 people we were bound to suffer some culture shock. Cooked banana dishes like matoke, G-nut sauce as they call it and other traditional cooked meals and fruits like Jack Fruit went a long way to prove how different one continent can be. The people are very warm and helpful even to strangers, it was unbelievable. Uganda is a Christian nation but now and then you’re bound to run into a mosque or two. The conference attendance was high with just under 200 hundred people with the majority of organizations being churches. This was encouraging for me to see churches being involved in fellowship and coming together for one cause. Ugandans have so much drive to do something about their societies and their country being nicknamed the “centre of scientific excellence in Africa” is testimony to that. Matthias, Kenny and Sam who are some of the KSM volunteers were given Bicycles by The Kings Foundation UK and they were overjoyed by the donation. Previously they would go for outreach Programs using their local Boda-Boda’s (Commuter Motorbikes) and Kombi which they call Taxi’s. The last day of the conference will always be a highlight for me because during the final practical session we worked through the rain and the delegates were willing to continue. The people gave us so much love that if it was not for our early flights they would have wanted to see us off at the airport.

Princess and I were pleased to see young people at the conference like King, Henry and Mable. There was so much to learn in Uganda and so much to see. We will always pray for another opportunity to go back again and see how the delegates are using the tools we gave them during the conference.