The Big Chintsa Sports Day 2013

In celebration of the handing over of the Chintsa Sports Centre from the Friends of Chintsa, to the Chintsa community.

It's been a looooooong time in preparation, with blood, sweat and tears, planning and re-planning, even the building and moving of an entire volleyball court...but the day arrived on Saturday 2nd February 2013, when the Chintsa Sports Centre was officially handed over from NPO Friends of Chintsa, to the community of Chintsa.



The Sports Centre is an initiative which has been driven forward for several years by the Friends of Chintsa, to address the needs of young people in the Chintsa village on a social, sporting and personal level. In a country and province where teenage pregnancies are high and under age drinking and drug taking are an every day occurrence, where schools offer little or no extra mural activities or after school clubs; no sports, art, theatre or any other sorts of classes to engage the interests of the youngsters of the village, these children can very easily find themselves draw in to the darker side of township life. Chintsa Sports Centre is an option to avoid this, where young people are encouraged to become engaged in sports several afternoons a week, to find an interest and a reason to stick to the sunny side of the street!

The Sports Centre itself has gone through several stages of development from...

A flat(ish) field...

(with quite a battle when the ball  went out of play!)

to a clever concept...

The Concept of a Sports Centre

to...

The building...

...and completion of a Club House

the...

...expansion of the field & building of drainage ditches...

...the putting up of goal posts...

The building of steps and seating...

...down to the field!

The fencing...

...of the football field...

(hoorah!)

The completion of the changing rooms...

...inside the club house...

...and the fitting of nets to the goals.

PHEW!

To the fencing...

And building of the (first)
volleyball court...

...to the moving of said volleyball court...

...to a more appropriate position!

And then the Sports initiative and Sports Centre, had as stint as a fundraising campaign!

To raise money for a proposed netball court. The netball court had to be...

...bulldozed...

...to flatten it...

...like this!

...which definitely entertained the kids :-D

Then a retaining wall was put in...

...and the court was ready to be tarred...

...and a fence was out around the court.

And after around 2 years of development, blood, sweat and tears...

The Centre is ready to be handed over to the Chintsa community and celebrate with the Big Chintsa Sports Day!

 

 

 

A lot of the physical work has been completed by VA32 Impact Volunteers (ISV groups) as well as community and CERPA members. As I wandered around the Big Sports Day on Saturday I felt that it was important to share with these people in particular, the photos of the Centre in full swing. To help them to see that each and every nail hammered in, each pole dug into the ground, each wheel-barrow of sand pushed, each rock stuck into a drainage ditch, really does count. And that this awesome Centre is a result of their collective strength and commitment to a long term cause.

Into the Future
The Centre has been in use throughout the building and development stages and will continue to be supported by the Friends of Chintsa, by volunteers from VA32 who will run sports sessions twice weekly for the children of the village and the group volunteers who continue to develop the physical infrastructure of the Centre itself.

If you would like to support Sports initiatives please email admin@friendsofchintsa.org. For more photos of the event click here to see our flickr slideshow.

April