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HISTORY & FOUNDING PRINCIPLES |
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If you have built castles in
the air, your work need not be lost, that is
where they should be. Now put the foundations
under them – Henry David Thoreau |
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The Kusasa Project was
founded in 2006 by Dave Riordan and Doug Gurr,
initially to provide basic story reading one
morning and one afternoon of recreational sport
for 3 classes of kids in a small school in the
Cape Winelands area of South Africa an area
which is home to a variety of cultures,
languages and ethnicities. Very quickly the
needs of the kids inspired Dave and Doug to
expand their activities, recruit volunteers and
to look for other areas where they might be able
to provide educational and recreational
opportunities to very poor and disadvantaged
children of the area, the majority of whom live
in shacks or dilapidated farm dwellings.
The
idea was to offer assistance to schools in areas
where they had insufficient human or physical
resources necessary to provide key educational
and sporting activities and to assist in opening
up the children to the outside world via field
trips, visits to businesses, clubs and other
activities.
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Today The Kusasa Project serves 1500 children
utilizing up to 60 volunteers, operating both
in-school and after-school program with children
from 6 local schools. Daily programs range from
nutritional assistance to structured literacy
programs, art, chess and ballet clubs to running
clubs and football training, primarily delivered
through volunteers recruited and managed by our
team.
A key element of our programs, which is
reinforced in our daily interaction with the
children, is to build self-confidence and
positive social interaction. In a society with a
history of division, establishing unity and
cooperation as well as respect and positive
interaction is a key to future success of the
individuals we work with. Our experience with
the children of South Africa has provided the
inspiration to continue this work and to strive
to constantly improve our programs. |
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The KUSASA
project staff & volunteers operate on the
following principles: |
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- The kids come first.
- We are trustworthy and honest. We do what we
say and we say what we do!
- We are colour-blind: black, white, coloured,
Xhosa, English, Afrikaans are all equal and
equally important to us.
- We are transparent = there are NO hidden
agenda's
- Communication is crucial for our success
- We seek to PARTNER with schools, teachers,
communities & organizations, to benefit kids –
NOT provide handouts.
- Because we don’t have all the answers, we must
work with schools, teachers & communities to
find the answers together.
- Our goal is to enable schools, teachers &
communities to succeed; to assist, not takeover
or replace.
- We respect the struggles of the past but
refuse to allow the past to be an excuse for
failure.
- The trustees, staff and volunteers of the KUSASA project believe that to succeed in
helping children, we all need to join hands.
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If we work together, we can succeed,
but if we don't each do our part, we will all
fail
The FUTURE is what matters! |
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