By Cherry Brandstater | Project Manager, New Hope Centre
Consistent with our mission to turn disadvantage into success, the children of New Hope Center have been leading the way in yet another area of Swazi life.
This week, four of our kids, John, Ethan, Joseph and Hephzibah are swimming in the first national gala of the Swaziland swim season. What makes this particularly notable is that none of the four has had a chance to even practice one day since this swim season started. This is a courageous act from these four athletes. Last season we were able to use the University of Swaziland indoor pool for lessons and training. However, it has changed hands so we have been praying and hoping to negotiate free swimming hours or something we can afford.
Joseph and Ethan have actually been selected to train with a national coach as part of the national swim team. John has been nominated to represent Swaziland in the international swim competition to be held in Botswana as the first step towards qualifying to represent Swaziland at the commonwealth games. In past years our kids have excelled, taking home many prizes at each swim gala.
Our involvement in national swimming competition began just a few days after New Hope Centre opened in 2004. The chairman of the swim association drove onto our campus and offered to train four of our team of volunteers in coaching. He also arranged for us to have swimming lessons at the hot spring pool of the Royal Swazi Conference and Hotel Centre. Immediately, our kids took hold of the opportunity and have never turned back.
Since then, Noah and Joanna have been become coaches of primary school students in various Swazi schools, while John and Zadok are in training to become coaches. Noah is working fulltime under one of the national swim coaches in nearby Mbabane. One of our administrators, Annie Cheung, is on the Executive Committee as treasurer of the Swaziland National Swim Association.
It is true in most societies that athletes serve as role models. The successes of our kids at the national level have afforded them many opportunities to speak into the lives of others who struggle financially, scholastically and socially. With your contributions to their lives in stabilizing their infrastructure, you have allowed them to fulfill the vision for which New Hope Centre was established in the first place: to develop leaders from marginalized orphans. Thank you for your continued support of these mission.
In gratitude,
Cherry Brandstater
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
