Wordworks (11 December)
To improve the literacy development of our younger members, we'll introduce the Wordworks
programme in our class for grade 1 and 2 when we re-open our class in January. WorkWorks
is widely recognised as a highly effective and easy to use programme. Four members have
been trained by Amy Webster from WordWorks to use the programme.
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Change a Life trip (10-11 November)
Every year we are invited to a party organised by our main funder the
Mike Thomson Change a Life Trust. Once a year, a group of about 70 top
managers of JSE registered companies leave their offices for a very tough
five day cycle tour. That is the Change a Life fundraising event. It funds
six projects in South Africa and we are very fortunate to be one of the six!
This year, the young talented gymnast Khanyile Mbolekwa accompanied Jan Blom
for the presentation for the cyclists at Villa Arcadia in Johannesburg. It was
for him a trip full of first times: flying, Gautrain, hotel, etc. And the
cyclists loved him and his little show.
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Bosberaad (30 August)
We had a 'Bosberaad' (forest-meeting) with senior members of Nemato Change a Life.
We discussed ways to improve our programme and to restructure our organisation.
The day was facilitated by Brett Malila from The President's Award and with input
from Charles Ainslie from The Learning Trust, coming all the way from Cape Town.
We looked into merging our sports clubs into Nemato change a Life to simplify our
structure and to reduce banking and auditing fees, but a meeting with Lottery made
clear that this will make it impossible to receive Lottery funding for sport. We
are now looking for ways to strengthen our existing leadership. We established a
Nemato Leadership Academy where we train members in leadership. Thanks a lot to Brett
and Charles, and to Stenden University for the venue for the meeting!
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Be nice (July)
Working hard and being nice is not something that comes naturally in our communities.
There are not many role models helping our youth into the right direction, and
unfortunately lots of the opposite. For a whole month during the holiday we have
been doing daily lessons on the theme “work hard, be nice”. That theme comes from
the KIPP Schools, that offer highly successful education to disadvantaged youth in
the USA. Some sessions were workshops, including one where members had to tell tell
what is nice about the other. For many this was a very new and nice experience.
The question “Am I nice?” is still going around. Is it helping? Yes! Are we done?
No, this is an ongoing challenge! We'll keep working on it.
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Watching the stars (June)
Watching planet Saturn with its rings and moon Titan is an amazing experience.
We are excited that we have the use of a fine telescope to explore the universe.
It's opening up a whole new world for our members and brings science 'down to
earth'.
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Youth Day (16 June)
Our annual Advisory Board meeting took place on our
eighth birthday: Youth Day, June 16. Great thanks to Brett Malila (The President's Award)
from Bathurst and Lesley Lambert (Mike Thomson Change a Life Trust) all the way from
Johannesburg, for making it an inspirational event with many fresh ideas to move our organisation
forward. For the members there was a small birthday party with nice food and a big cake.
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Athi, our first graduate (31 March)
we celebrate the first graduation of a member. Athenkosi Hlekani graduated at the
University of Johannesburg. He has a long history of taking our motto success in life
to the extreme.
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President's Award Ceremony (27 March)
This year the President's Award Ceremony took place in Keiskammahoek. It was
nice to explore this rural place. We had never been there before. Seven Nemato
members received their bronze and silver awards for the sport, skills training,
community service and hike that they completed. It was hard work! Well done and
congratulations to Akhona Quma, Siphamandla Baku, Sipiwo Makeleni and Thembani
James for receiving bronze and to Lifa Nxopho, Lindokuhle Nikelo and Thulani
Magongo for receiving silver. Good luck to all for their next challenge: silver
and gold level.
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Nemato wins Eastern Cape Sports Award (28 February)
We are extremely proud that we won the Eastern Cape “MEC Special Award”
at the Provincial Sports Awards event for our sports development programme.
It is fantastic that our programme got this high provincial recognition.
The award event took place at the Boardwalk Hotel in Port Elizabeth.
Unfortunately we were not able to be at the event, as we had to leave
Port Alfred very early the next morning for a gymnastics training session
in PE. That was a pity, but what really counts is winning the award.
If that doesn't keep us going...
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Bronze President's Award Hike (8-9 February)
Our members, Akhona Quma, Aphelele Makeleni and Thembani James
did the two day Mossland Two Rivers Trail near Grahamstown. It was
a hike for the bronze award, and not as easy as they want you to believe.
It's far and the bags are heavy! But all made it to the finish and
passed the bronze award. Some other members will do the silver hike soon.
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