Introduction.

The Chairman, Amatola Foundation

 

Dear Ib,

 

Re: Feedback on the World Cup U.P.C. 2010.

 

In July we hosted a remarkably successful Under Privileged Camp which focused on the World Cup. This was made possible thanks to the Amatola Foundation’s on-going support and so please pass on to the Foundation members how thankful the children and the Hobbiton staff are. It is with great pleasure that I submit this report on the camp.

 

On this camp we again did Conflict Resolution, Communication and Understanding Democracy, although there was also a high level of focus around the World Cup Soccer and a correspondingly even higher level of purely recreational fun activities.  

 

Please do not hesitate to ask if there are any queries about the report or about my proposal for a longer 2 week long camp in December.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Josh Paton

Centres Director

Hobbiton Association

  

 

Tonya’s Report:

July Camp: Children

 

Numbers invited: 130

Numbers attending: 125

 

Backgrounds

 

Port Elizabeth: none

Grahamstown: 60

East London: 59

Hogsback: 6

 

Gender

 

Female +/- 50%

Males+/- 50%

 

 

Health

 

Reasonable to very poor. The Grahamstown Children were from the poorest of the Joza District of Grahamstown and were identified by the Assumption Feeding Clinic, Rafael Centre and Eluxolweni Shelter as being potentially the most receptive and deserving.

The East London children were from E.L. Children’s Home which comprises of four homes in and around E.L. The social workers identified these children as the most deserving.

 

Camp duration

 

7 days

 

Activities offered

 

Self Development, Understanding Democracy, Conflict Resolution, Creative Arts, Abseiling, Group Dynamics, High, Middle and Low Ropes Courses, Hiking, Videos, Camp Cleaning, Kitchen Work, Early morning jogs / swims / aerobics, Activities in the Hall, Night Hiking and Camping and the eradication of Alien Plant species, understanding the need for a tidy environment, AIDS lectures and World Cup Viewing, Soccer matches.

 

Instructors

 

Numbers: 35

 

Backgrounds

 

South Africa: 32

Xhosa: 11

English: 21

British: 1

Americans: 2 

 

 

The Camp:

 

This camp was held for seven days for 125 children democratically chose their activities, from adventure to recreational, work to play. Points were awarded for each completed voluntary task and again extra duties (such that would benefit the community, like litter collection or dish washing) were assigned to misbehaving individuals. We also continued with our programme of developing Life Skills that they are not going to be given at school and we educated the children on Alien Invasive plant species and we eradicated some in and around Hobbiton.  

 

We also focused soccer and allowed the children all to watch the semi-finals if they so chose, which about 80% did.  

 

For the rest we continued to use the basic model of the camp as we have been so successfully using over the last few years, again with great success. 

 

 

Outcomes:

 

We had a greater degree of compliance on this camp as well as a heightened sense of fun. The feed-back that we have got so far (from the nuns) has been very positive, although we still await more reports from the other organisations. 

 

Photographs:

 

We will post a copy with photographs and some of the letters of thanks.

 

Finances:

 

We are still awaiting some of the invoices from a few of our suppliers. What we have is a general break-down until such time as the final amounts can be collated. Our new auditors (Brandt & Bowling) are presenting a separate audit of the camp. 

 

Rounded-off Breakdown

Food: 45 000

T-Shirts: 5 000

Fuel: 5 000

Miscellaneous / Phone / casual labour etc.: 2 000

Total: 57 000

Josh’s report:

This camp was interesting in that there was a far higher than usual sense of well-being amoungst the children and thus the Instructors. I attribute this to several factors:

  • The camp was right at the very end of a long school holiday. Consequently the children were more rested and also more excited about being together with other children. They were also more ready to obey the camp rules, which made it easier on the Instructors.

  • We had a lower than usual ratio of children to Instructors (about 5:1).  This resulted in the children being more easily controlled as well as  the Instructors having more energy as there were more of them to  share the workload.

  • At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I also believe that the World  Cup atmosphere had something to do with it. Throughout the country  there was a very positive energy with an almost overwhelming sense  of well-being amongst so many of the people who would normally be indifferent to the plight of their fellow man. It was a good time to be  a South African in South Africa!

 

Added to all of the above is another reason why I believe there was so much harmony during this UPC -> no vuvuzelas! We were given 200 of them to give to the children and so I had no right to withhold them, but what I did is give each child their noise machine as they stepped off the bus when we dropped them off back home. I have never-the-less kept 1 back as a gift for you wonderful people when you visit us later in the year. Louise will no longer have to shout for Ib to come in from the vineyard, she can just blow the vuvuzela and Ib will know that it is time for lunch, as will all of the neighbours.

 

Despite how well the camp went, I never-the-less feel the need to shake up our routine a bit and so in December I want to run the camp for 2 weeks instead of 1. I also want to change the activities and the way in which we do things. I feel this way as, although the children have a lot of fun, I feel that many of them are insufficiently tested as they have done a lot of what we have so many times that they are no longer challenged. Obviously this new formula will come with problems, such as how to get sufficient Instructors for that length of time, how to keep the numbers and not halve the food if we are doubling the time, but these are problems that I feel sure we will overcome.

 

I look forward to having Lund to work with us: I have said before that the Danes make the best Instructors and I trust that this Viking son will be no different!

 

Thanking you again,

Yours sincerely, 

 

Josh Paton

Centres Director

Hobbiton Association