Founder praises charity team for outstanding year of hard work and impact
David Geldart, Founder and Volunteer CEO of the Bambisanani Partnership has praised the work of the charity’s team members for their outstanding dedication and effectiveness during 2024.
Over the course of the past 18 years, the Leeds based charity has engaged and connected over 27,000 young people from both South Africa and the UK in its various programmes and projects using the power of sport to promote education, health, global citizenship. 2024 saw a record number of 10,623 young people from both counties involved. The inspirational work of this small charity, run entirely by volunteers, has gained global recognition.
Over a three-month period in the summer 30 student volunteers and 8 members of staff from St. Mary’s School, Menston; The University of Leeds and Newcastle College worked with 33 different schools and 4,708 learners in remote rural KwaZulu-Natal. This included 10 new schools being added to the various programmes this year. Primary and secondary school learners participated in a range of activities including: Sports Festivals, Sports Coaching sessions, Cycling Clinics, Leadership Programmes, Literacy Festivals and wider academic curricular support.
Throughout the year the charity’s pioneering Cycling partnership with KZN Cycling trained 5,604 young people how to ride and maintain bikes. This work has now progressed to include various Cycling Competitions and a Talent Identification Programme. Owen Botha, President of KZN Cycling recently said, “The growth of the cycling family in the Nkandla area is heartening to see with more young learners being exposed to the sport on a regular basis. This is obviously only possible through our ongoing association with the Bambisanani Partnership, and this is a story that continues to write new and interesting chapters each day.”
Also, throughout the year 355 children from 13 UK and South African primary schools joined together to participate in the Bambisanani International Athletics Challenge. Supported by a range of Bambisanani based interventions 2024 saw Mnyakanya High School achieve its best ever academic results. It was a particular pleasure this year to welcome Mnyakanya School educators and learners to Leeds for a most wonderful action packed educational and cultural visit. There was further success for Mnyakanya through student Thobile Nsibande who qualified as a teacher at the University of South Africa with the support of a Bambisanani Higher Education Bursary. In a year of great innovation and development 8-year-old Althaea Dickenson from York introduced and led a new Bambisanani initiative based on World Book Day that brought 1091 reading books to South African primary schools.
Four new and ongoing Bambisanani initiatives have had a significant impact throughout the year. At Thembinfundo Special School the charity has introduced Sport and Physical Education to the curriculum and has also installed Water Tanks providing clean drinking water and significantly improving sanitation. In an initiative led by Newcastle College, the partnership worked with South African charity ‘My Walk’ to provide all the learners at Ngqamzana Primary School with a pair of shoes. Many children were found to have no shoes or ill-fitting shoes despite having to walk considerable distances to school. Remarkably My Walk produce the shoes from recycled hospital plastics at a cost of 35 Rand (£1.53) a pair. 716 pairs were provided by the charity for the school this year. Additionally, collaborating with Rotary International and local Rotary Clubs in the UK and South Africa ICT provision at Mnyakanya School has been further developed resulting in higher attainment and increased enrolment at the school.
Yet again this year the charity has been recognised for its commitment and contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 17 namely Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Reduced Inequalities and Partnership for Goals. It is the experience of the partnership that these are very important issues for young people and that its international collaborative encounters and activities significantly enhance their knowledge, understanding and motivation to become proactive global citizens who wish to create a kinder, more equitable and sustainable future.
Recognising, rewarding and celebrating the achievement of young people through annual awards is an important aspect of the charity’s work. During 2024, 19 special awards were presented across both countries and five schools. This is included three new awards at Thembinfundo Special School in memory of Matt Harvey for Sportswoman, Sportsman and Sports Leader of the Year.
During the year significant amounts of money were raised and donated by Bambisanani volunteers, institutions and supporters. Sponsored events saw supporters walk, run, climb, row, swim and cycle some incredible distances in order to raise much needed funds. Bambisanani activities could not happen without this generosity and tremendous effort.
With no employees or premises all money donated and raised goes to fund front line projects and activities. Furthermore, it is the policy of the charity always to seek a percentage of funding for every project from South African sources and indeed only for projects that have been identified by local communities. The partnership remains an incredibly lean and efficient organisation committed to respectful and sustainable development.
This has been a year of considerable external recognition for the partnership. For the second year running Bambisanani was named as International Sport and Physical Education Charity of the Year. Most fittingly the award was presented in South Africa to Mrs Catherine Chattoe, Bambisanani Coordinator at St. Mary’s School and Mrs PK Zondi Bambisanani Coordinator at Mnyakanya High School. St. Mary’s and Mnyakanya are the two founding schools of the partnership. The outstanding work of Brogan O’Connor and her Newcastle College team was also recognised by being named as an Association of Colleges Beacon Finalist for the British Council Award for Excellence in International Work. The exceptional work of Miss Mazet Langa at Mnyakanya School was highlighted by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education at a special awards ceremony. The charity was also honoured this year with an invitation of Founder and CEO, David Geldart to attend the 30th Anniversary of Democracy at a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London.
David Geldart was full of praise for the Bambisanani team, “This has been our most successful year to date and it simply could not happen without our small army of volunteers, supporters and sponsors from both countries. They are wonderful selfless people who continually go the extra mile in order to make small but significant differences in the world. Behind all the impressive statistics from this year are real people who made it happen and real people whose lives have been positively impacted. All our work is ‘needs led’ and driven by the schools and communities in South Africa that we work with; it is a great honour to be able to collaborate and learn with them. Our aim is to develop capacity and empower the communities in which we work not to create a dependency culture. Our work has always striven to create genuine ‘two-way’ learning opportunities for young people from both countries. On my very first visit to South Africa, I was told the old Zulu proverb – ‘if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. Together, as a team, we have managed not only to sustain but to significantly develop our work over that time. However, like all good teams we are never content and are already planning for a very ambitious 2025!”
Please also see:
Bambisanani in Numbers page on our website
