Back to Grant Winners2008 UPA Grant Project
Soweto Development Clinic
By: Ankur Udani
UPA Grant Award: $850
Project Summary
The Johannesburg Ultimate Club has maintained a regular Ultimate development clinic in Soweto, South Africa's largest township, for the past year. Soweto's population is dominated by people making a meager living and a relatively high percentage of the population is unemployed. Every Sunday, members from the club volunteer to spend 2-3 hours playing Ultimate with children between the ages of 5 and 12.
The Soweto Ultimate Development Clinic has two goals; in the short term, Ultimate is meant to provide a constructive outlet for children. An approach often taken is to simply hand over frisbees or soccer balls and expect the children to 'go out and play'; the clinic seeks to go beyond that…Our members have invested a lot of time and energy to build a relationship with the boys (and gain the trust of their parents). We are trying to generate a self-sustaining level of interest in the boys. We want the kids to throw around or organize a game even when we are not there during the week. Also, we use Ultimate as a vehicle to transpose its culture and values onto the children. The 'Spirit of the Game' concept has not yet fully taken hold, but we are introducing it in pieces and we can begin to see the kids slowly incorporate it into their game.
In the long-term, we hope the Soweto children will develop into the Soweto Ultimate Team and compete with the other Johannesburg teams in our Summer and Winter leagues. A similar exercise was undertaken in Cape Town with children from Khayelitsha, Cape Town's largest township. After many years of working with the children, they have developed into one of the strongest teams in South Africa, winning the South African Nationals in 2006. This same team also represented South Africa as a junior team at worlds in Finland and is ranked 9th in the world.
