June Skillz Holiday Camps

Coach Isaac leading his favorite energizer

June continued to be a hectic but productive month as the Kim-Team ran two Skillz Holiday camps in the community of Homevale.

With the schools right down the street from each other, Venus Primary and Homevale Primary proved very convenient locations for these camps. After recruiting the schools and completing all the necessary preparations, our coaches and staff were ready to work with kids over the school break and ensure they stayed safe and learned some invaluable life skills.

Coaches Seno and Fire leading Breakaway from HIV

After the first 2 days of the camps we realized our numbers were not going to be where we had originally hoped. Each camp had around 50 participants, about half of what we aimed for. We continued with the camps and our team did everything in their power to retain the learners for the remainder of the week and persuade them to bring their friends. Unfortunately by the end of the week, our numbers remained low, graduating a total of 105 from the two camps.

This Holiday camp experience sparked an interesting debate among our team members. As an NGO, Grassroot Soccer is always striving for growth and development as we simultaneously strive to develop communities. As much as we want and need to reach certain numbers, or targets, at the end of the day the quality of the work we do is paramount. And the quality of these Holiday camps was tangible. The class-size was smaller and that meant more attention was paid to each and every participant. There was a collective feeling of accomplishment among coaches and staff who were present at the camps. The kids were always having a good time, and they truly seemed to grasp the information brought to them by our coaches.

Coach Jeanine during Free Play Soccer

If we value quality over quantity, like any social development organization should, then these camps were a major success. Our team did an amazing job and we are very proud of our coaches for bringing their passion and energy into the classroom and onto the field each and every day.