Help we already got
Rackets have been collected and tennis shirts sponsored for all the kids by Erwin Vanwelkenhuysen from Tenniscenter Wimbledon Sint-Truiden (Belgium).
Roger’s friends Yves & Karen brought the goods to the port of Rotterdam. Captain Iain Ross of Safmarine handled the transport to Sedgefield as a PKF “per kind favour” parcel.
Erwin Vanwelkenhuysen ı Roger Vande Wiele ı Willy Parent
Our sponsors
Our main sponsor is iThemba vzw from Antwerp (Belgium). Their goal is to support development through education. The organisation consists of a group of enthusiastic young Flemish professionals and is already active in South Africa at a primary school in De Rust.
Sponsorship by iThemba vzw gives our social project a boost and is a big help in achieving our goal of teaching and guiding these youngsters through tennis in the congenial surroundings of our Tennis Club.
As the project grows, people and organisations are getting inspired and are starting to support this initiative. We want to thank all those who support us in cash or in kind: there was f.i. Grahame bringing lots of balls and Theo & Josefien making donations this year.
Watson, Adrian, John and Roger started in April 2010 coaching the kids every Saturday morning on the courts of the Sedgefield Tennis Club.
Today, lessons are given by Larry Rootenberg, an experiented pro coach, assisted by Roger, Richelle and Greta. Also other members of the Tennis Club already helped or volunteered to do so in the near future: Lanie Bornman, Cherie Bester, George Emslie, Watson Nyembe, Paolo Perosino, Michael Judd, Sue Swain and John Webster.
Richelle
Kohn
The coaches
Sedgefield tennis
school project
We held a very successful fun day of activities at Outward Bound. Thirty kids from Smutsville, Sedgefield and rural areas participated.
The highlight of the day was the drumming session on African drums, energetically lead by Richelle Kohn from the Drum Café...
Read the press article and enjoy the pictures.
News
Great fun day
Roger
Vande Wiele
The Sedgefield Tennis School Project started as an experiment in March 2010 and is now a Development Project, guided by a Registred Non-Profit Organization, completely selfsupporting, thanks to the sponsoring of overseas organizations.
Thanks to sponsors, coaching and training equipment is offered to the children of Sedgefield, with a focus on kids from the previously disadvantaged communities.
The tennis school also functions as a stepping stone for the development of the kids, help them to grow and empower themselves, guide them to become responsible within their environment and society.
Our final aim is to have all the kids of all the communities playing and enjoying tennis together.
Richelle Kohn entertaining the kids with a drumsession
Larry
Rootenberg
At the end of year 2011, we made the finalists of Sedgefield tennis kids happy with some presents.
They all received a sport bag, a racket and sportshoes.
The kids - from left to right: Roger (runner-up), Wayden (winner), Shadley (semi-finalist), and Reginald (semi-finalist) - proudly pose at the courts and in Smutsville village, next to their homes.
