Case Study

Team South Africa

Team South Africa

A group of seven 16 and 17 year olds from Prudhoe planned a Stage 4 trip to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, to undertake community work at Project Gateway. This ambitious church-based community project brings together a number of exciting smaller projects. These included running a school, an overnight shelter for the homeless, feeding schemes that provide around 10,000 meals a month, HIV / AIDS outreach, women’s crisis centre and an enterprise and ICT training scheme.
 

The group’s main objective was painting the outside of a rural crèche. In addition, the young people taught lessons at Gateway School, assisted on a feeding scheme and at a township crèche, and tidied up the site at Gateway itself. They also visited the severely deprived Umsilinga Primary School for two days to help with the distribution of food and blankets to the children. This was a moving and humbling experience for everyone. The children at Umsilinga are in great need; as many as 1 in 3 are thought to be HIV positive and many are living in serious poverty.
 

As part of the preparation for the trip, the young people came up with some very creative ideas and organised a number of events, such as a quiz night, charity ball and ceilidh to raise funds for the trip. Through this project, the young people have learnt to work together as a team despite the fact that they are all very different individuals. They communicated, worked through disagreements and made a lot of decisions together. They also developed some great skills at dealing with different figures in authority from organising passports to securing the approval of risk assessments.
 

From the trip, Team South Africa learned about the dignity of other people in very adverse circumstances – how, even in the face of poverty and extreme desperation, they can be very thankful and full of life and energy. Since the team returned, each member has discovered that they are much more appreciative of what they have. Group member Lizzie said, “It was an amazing experience which I definitely want to do again! The people were great and South Africa is a great country.”
 

Their facilitator Charles told us, “It is great to see a group that starts off being a bit lethargic to take up responsibility, to grow and change in their attitudes!”
 

The impact and wider community benefit of this project is two-fold. The local people who are part of Project Gateway received considerable support from Team South Africa. And, on their return to England, they have spoken about their experiences in school assemblies and worked on school projects for World Aids Day. Out of school, they’ve held meetings for people to come and hear about their achievements. What they shared has inspired adults and young people to be more aware of world issues.
 

Some young people are now asking if they can organise a similar trip for themselves!