Today (July 19, 2012) we visited the Hope Academy in the notorious township of Soweto. On June 16, 1976 a group of high school students from Soweto marched in protest to having to use the Afrikaans language 50% of the time in schools. In response the Apartheid government eventually opened fired on the unarmed protesters when they refused to disperse. Estimates of those killed that day range between 176 and 600 killed and more than 1000 wounded.
Soweto is no longer the shanty-town that it was in 1976. It is now row-upon-row of government-built housing. The day we visited it was very dusty and dry, but in general it was well-kept and clean.
AIS South Africa runs a Hope Academy in Soweto with 36 children participating. They are divided up into roughly 12 girls and 24 boys between the ages of 9 and 12. They day we visited they were all excited because they were handing out brand-new Kappa uniforms (see picture).
Their typical training lasts about 3 hours and consists of about 30 minutes of homework help, 30 minutes of Biblically-based life-skill training and about 2 hours of soccer training. They usually practice 3 days a week and play games on Saturdays.
The neat thing is that their coach is a product of AIS SA’s soccer ministry in Drakenstien prison. After he was released from prison, he was hired by AIS to coach these children because he grew up in Soweto and knows the gangs and challenges they will face even in their young lives.
AIS SA would like to multiply the Hope Academy model throughout Africa and my visit is helping them evaluate the program and get a different perspective. In addition, I have learned lots from their example and am reflecting on how I can integrate parts of their best-practices into the ministry in Haiti.
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