Teaser for my next post on Franciske Venter a lady with Cerebral Palsy that refuses for life to get her down.

Unsung Community Hero: The story of the Gelvandale Sports Club

The Gelvandale Cricket Club was founded in 1977 and is considered one of the best cricket clubs in a disadvantaged area in South Africa.

The club initially started as a cricket club but has now changed to a general club that offers a lot of different sports including lawn bowls, tennis and hockey.

Many Proteas cricket players like, Robin Peterson, Alviro Petersen, Garnett Kruger, Ashwell Prince etc and ExProteas coach Russel Domingo all started their cricket at the club however if it wasn't for apartheid who knows how many other Proteas players they would have produced.

Gelvendale also had many well know players from the New Brighton area that played their cricket against the club and the most well noted was Khaya Majola who often played against them.

Even the Jordaan brothers, Danny that is well known in football and Max who works for Cricket South Africa, all played their cricket at the club.

However we cannot just look at the top players at the club to see the value of the club. In talking to Robin Peterson, he told me that the club was a fantastic place for him to go to after school and it allowed him to make a lot of friends by playing sport. He said that it gave him a fantastic opportunity to believe in himself and keep off the streets where there were some bad distractions.

The problem in the club today is that even though they are still trying to get kids off the streets and out of gangs and other less than desirable occupations, they are battling to get the kids involved in sport.

Gelvandale Sports Club are actively involved in the local schools even busing them in after school so they can play various sports in after school. A lot of these schools do not have facilities that will allow them to play extramural activities but with the first class facilities they have to opportunity to play sport. Also the schools can focus in spending the little money that they have to focus on education instead of paying for sporting facilities.

 Rochard Dolley, youth and events manager, at the club talks to us about what the club is about and who supports the club, he talks about the future plans of the club and what they are looking to do to get kids involved and the survival of the club.

Unsung Community Hero: Belinda Allie saves kids through sport

I met Belinda Allie in 2012 when her Primary School, Malabar Primary School won the opportunity to play against the Proteas in a match of KFC Mini-Cricket.

Belinda got involved in cricket in the 1980’s when cricket was considered at men’s game. The area that she came from was meant to be playing mini-cricket but that was not the case so the schools in the area had a meeting and some of the men in her area said that she was a good leader so they should use her to run the programme in the area.

The first reaction was that she was not strong enough to run the programme but Belinda believed in herself and she told them not to underestimate her.

She was given a 3 month probation period to prove herself and she flourished in those three months. She started helping her coaches and they all started growing so much that after the three month probation period a lot of the other coaches asked if they could take over the leadership in her area.

Luckily for her, there were more coaches that supported her than what opposed her. Everyone got a chance to validate as to why they think that the various parties should get the role but in the end everyone came to understand that she was the best candidate and she was unanimously voted in.

Since then until today she has been running mini-cricket in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth.

She contributes her success to the massive support that she gets from the coaches in her region. They are all motivated, passionate and  are all willing to go the extra mile. If you have the passion, and no matter what conditions you find yourself in the kids will be there to make all the hard work worthwhile.

She says that she recently hosted a coaching session at Gelvandale Cricket Club where she was coaching some of the new coaches in the programme and some of them could not even hold a bat properly but they were passionate and their focus was on the kids so they learned very quickly and now they can take their passion back to their kids and can get them started at KFC Mini-Cricket.

Belinda is currently the deputy head of Bayview Primary School in Helenvale, Port Elizabeth which is an area rife in gangs. It is not an area where it is easy to motivate kids to play sport but she has found that all the kids need in the area is love and they are all willing to play sport and look for other avenues in life where they do not have to resort to gangsterism.

Sport breaks a lot of barriers in her school and she has created a safe haven in the school where all the kids can stay after school and just have fun.

She was concerned that since Helenvale is a dangerous area, the kids from New Brighton and Gelvaldale do not want to go into the area to play sport but Gelvandale Cricket Club has allowed her kids to play KFC Mini-Cricket at their club and they are also looking at playing other sport at the club.

Her kids passion is what motivates her to look for alternatives so that she can overcome the issues that she faces in her area. She finally has a place to coach her kids where they can play sport away from the dangers in her area. All the kids want to do is get active and here they can do it in a safe place.

Gary  Dolley, the president of Gelvandale Sports Club has got a developmental hockey programme for the kids to take part in. They also play football, tennis and other sport.

Belinda finds that the kids that she coaches and teaches are blessed with a natural sports ability. She finds them thirsty to learn.

There is another programme that she is involved in. She used to teach at Malabar Primary School and the school it situated in an area where there are a lot of foreigners that live there. They have people from India, Jordan, Pakistan etc… This is an area that is a lot safer than Helenvale and parents are keen to watch their kids.

Belinda organized for these parents to get involved in coaching their kids KFC Mini-Cricket, and it did not matter if it was mother-daughter, father-son, father-daughter or mother-son they parents and kids were all invited. The parents love it and they are creating lifetime memories with their kids.

Now the better cricket players have fallen part of the Gelvandale hub that has been organized by Cricket South Africa and the Eastern Province Cricket Board.

Belinda is a remedial therapist and she has kids that suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome and other kids that have troubles studying but sport gives them a chance to play. The best time to find these kids and to deal with the problems that they are facing at school is whilst the kids are playing sport. You can encourage them and just talk to them about their problems.

In the modern school syllabus you have to have physical education, life orientation, and they need to promote participation at the school and that helps them develop a healthy mind by also taking part in physical activities.

Belinda does a lot of coaching at the Gelvandale Cricket club. She finds the club, the coaches, the board and absolutely everyone involved in the club so helpful and professional. She has meetings, KFC Mini-Cricket festivals, coaching and any kind of assistance that she needs.

She thinks that KFC Mini-Cricket teams and schools should contact the local clubs that can help them with organizing their sport and festivals especially for the schools that don’t have adequate facilities.

To help with coaching the kids the club often sends their senior players and even some of the international players that have come from the club get involved in coaching her kids.

Kids at her school need to look for good role models and Belinda says that her principal and her teachers all become role models for the kids. The club also helps with supplying role models for her kids to inspire them and to show them a different way of life to the one that they used to. Belinda has even got the police involved to talk to the kids and to assist the kids.

As role models the teachers have a lot of pressure but they also have a huge responsibility to be correct role models so Belinda and her school principal provide support for the teachers through seminars, psychologists and motivational speakers.

So how do you make a change in your area? Belinda says that you need passion, passion and passion. She believes that if you bless others then god will bless you. Her daughter has just qualified as a doctor and there are other blessings in her life and she believe that it is due to her helping others that God is helping her. Anyone can do what she is doing and all it takes is for you to take the initiative and follow your passion.