Bambisanani Partnership Review 2023
By any standards this has been the most remarkable year for the Bambisanani Partnership.
The amazing Bambisanani team have worked tirelessly, frequently in the most challenging of circumstances, to ensure that this has been our most successful year to date in terms of development, programmes, participation and impact:
This year saw 4,007 young people from both countries involved in Bambisanani activities. This is the highest level of annual participation since the partnership began.
41 young people from four institutions in the UK (St. Mary’s School, University of Leeds, Leeds Trinity University and Newcastle College) together with 11 members of staff volunteered in South Africa for a period of more than 3 months in total. This involved 33 different schools of which 17 were new to the programme.
In response to the Global Sport for All Summit and Pope Francis’ call for sport to be more inclusive and accessible, Bambisanani schools in the UK and South Africa became the first schools in the world to sign a global declaration committing to this aim. In doing so they joined some of the world’s leading sporting organisations such as the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and the Special Olympics Committee in making this pledge.
In collaboration with Mnyakanya School and Rotary Clubs in South Africa and the UK, Computer Applications Technology (CAT) provision at Mnyakanya School has been dramatically improved with the school achieving specialised CAT status via assessment by the KZN Department of Education.
Mnyakanya School achieved its best ever examination results and recorded a significant increase in student enrolment, citing the Bambisanani Partnership as an important factor in that success with particular reference to the ICT Suite and Water Installation Project provided by the charity.
The Cycling to Success initiative continues to expand and in July a significant partnership agreement was signed with KZN Cycling that will see us jointly train more than 5,000 young people a year, from some of South Africa’s most rural, remote and deprived areas how to ride and maintain bikes. 2,356 children have already participated in the programme.
The Bambisanani International Athletics Challenge expanded to include 15 schools from South Africa and the UK involving 335 students. Since this programme began 852 primary school children from both countries have participated in the initiative.
18 Bambisanani Annual Awards presented at three South African schools and St. Mary’s, Menston recognising and rewarding achievement of students.
In partnership with the Jordan Sinnott Foundation, annual awards have been presented in South Africa encouraging sport and sports leadership in young people. Football shirts from the Sinnott 25 campaign were distributed to children at Mnyakanya High School and Vumanhlamvu Primary School.
Two students from Mnyakanya School have been awarded Bambisanani Partnership bursaries as a contribution towards their university fees. Both students are studying to become teachers at the University of South Africa. One student qualified this year.
The partnership was honoured to be invited by the South African High Commissioner to participate in the South Africa National Day Celebrations at the South High Commission.
Several national and international articles have been published highlighting the impact of the charity.
Charity Founder and CEO, David Geldart gave a speech at the International Olympic Academy in Ancient Olympia and also contributed to an international Global School Alliance webinar.
The Bambisanani Partnership was named as Physical Education Sport charity of the Year.
Since the Bambisanani Partnership began, a total of 16,703 young people have been involved in its various projects and programmes. Significantly, this now includes students from primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities. Over the past three years the number of educational establishments involved in our work has increased from 17 to 38.
Massive thanks to the Bambisanani team for the outstanding achievements in 2023. The impact on young people involved in our programmes has been quite remarkable not least in developing their world view and concept of humanity. The international recognition of our work and invitations to share ‘our story’ and experiences continue to both surprise and inspire us. Special thanks must go our wonderful sponsors and supporters – without their help none of the above would happen. We have taken a short breath to reflect on 2023 but our focus has already switched to 2024 and even more ambitious plans for the future - changing lives for the better through the power of education and sport. – working together and learning together.
Bambisanani Partnership Highlights from 2023
Please also see:
Bambisanani in Numbers page on our website
