25/02/2011

Sports Gap Year South Africa

Want to take a volunteer gap year? Sports-mad? South Africa needs YOU! One year on from proudly hosting the FIFA world cup, South Africa is gearing up for another year of fantastic sport – and you can get involved!

It’s difficult to find a country more sports-crazy than South Africa. Its national side are among the favourites to lift the 2011 cricket World Cup, while its rugby team will be jetting off to New Zealand in September to compete for the World Cup as defending champions. BUNAC coordinates a range of fantastic volunteer programmes all over the world – but where South Africa is concerned, a sports-mad country requires sports-mad volunteers!

If you turn straight to the back pages when you pick up a newspaper, if your favourite shoes come with studs, or if ‘going out for a drink’ means necking a Lucozade to you, volunteering in South Africa could be your (world) cup of tea!

Sports Coaching South Africa in a nutshell

Participants on BUNAC’s Sports Coaching South Africa programme use the medium of sport to raise awareness of health and social issues among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Of course, coaching and playing sport makes the programme a lot of fun, but there’s a serious side to programme too.

Sport, like music, art or literature, has the extraordinary ability to cross social boundaries and touch lives; making it a perfect medium to connect with people. You’re not just teaching a sport, you’re encouraging children to engage in a positive activity, reducing crime levels among young people, creating platforms of opportunity and bridging the social divides that South Africa is currently challenging.

Sports volunteers bring their passion for football, cricket, rugby, hockey, netball, tennis, basketball or swimming (to name but a few) 6,000 miles across the ocean to Port Elizabeth, where they live with other volunteers, take coaching sessions and run matches and tournaments. They also participate in a variety of other educational activities that combine sport and exercise with the promotion of health and social awareness.

You can volunteer for between 5 and 12 weeks.

Sporting Events hitting South Africa in 2011

South Africa has quite a full social calendar when it comes to sports this year! You could spend your spare time on the lookout for the Big Five on safari, enjoying the beaches and nightlife of Cape Town or revelling in the splendour of the country’s breathtaking mountains. And these are just a few of the things that’ll catch the eye of any sports-lover:

- The Dusi Canoe Marathon sees 2,000 competitors kayak from Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
- The Comrades Marathon has the same start and finish lines as The Dusi Canoe Marathon, but this one’s for the runners. It’s a 56 mile ‘ultramarathon’ that’s been ‘running’ (sorry) since 1921.
- Pietermaritzburg again, and it’s the swimmers’ turn to get involved. The Midmar Mile draws in thousands of competitors of varying abilities to compete in one of the world's largest open water swimming events.
- So that’s land and water done, and now air – South Africa boasts numerous drop zones and skydiving clubs, so it’s the perfect location for adrenaline junkies!
- For something a little more traditional, check out Jukskei. It’s a 200-year-old folk sport that originated in South Africa that can be played in a team, in pairs or by singles. The object of the game is to score points by knocking over a peg that is planted in a sandpit – though there are a number of rules that make it a lot more complicated than it sounds!

More Information

Telephone: +442072513472
E-mail: traveladvice@bunac.org.uk


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Volunteer South Africa

Sports coaching projects in South Africa