Courage is a life skill all of us have to learn. No matter if it’s a volunteering coach, a young netball player from Macassar, a boy whose father is an alcoholic or a young person from an area that stands for drugs and gangs. For most of our young people, these circumstances are representing their everyday lives. It is hard, but no reason to give up. At Helderberg Academy, we are trying to find our ways to face those difficulties. Without fear but with courage. How can we do that? We are one team, supporting one another, no matter what.
Let us give you a brief insight of a way how courage overcomes fear.
It takes courage to leave your family, friends, your home behind. It takes courage because you are leaving your comfort zone. You don’t know what’s going to happen. How it feels like to be such a long distance away from everything and one you know and love. It is like jumping into cold water; from one second to the other, you are facing a completely new environment, workplace, people, culture. But this is the reality of all our volunteers from abroad. Yes, it can be hard sometimes, but it’s worth it because we share a dream, we are all here “to change lives of a fatherless generation through sports”
We are working in three different communities. Every single one is an area of poverty, gangs, drugs and a lot more negative aspects. It’s not a place where you want to raise up your kids. But what if you don’t have another option? A lot of our young people are coming from homes with alcohol or drugs abuse. Most of the times they don’t have another option than facing these difficulties, to have courage. But how is teaching them what it means to have courage?
At Helderberg Academy we are using sports to do this, to teach courage. In the last month, we focused on this life skill in particular. We did not only do drills to teach them courage, we also had conversations with them, we encouraged them, advised them, loved them. They need that. They need someone to tell them what to do and why. They listen to us because they know us, trust us and because they want to be the change in their communities, schools and at home.
It’s a work that can be hard, but we can see the fruits of it. One girl from Macassar has been coming to our coaching for a few years now. She is playing Netball. In the beginning, she learned very slowly, you could hardly see any improvement. Some people need time, a lot of work and encouragement. She is one of them. But she always showed courage, she kept going even when she was afraid or failing. The end of the story is that she is performing very well now. She has courage on and offs the pitch. She is not only a motivation for our team, but also for all the other players.
Because they understand that we are one team, supporting one another, no matter what.