Gymnastic team heads to Zambia
THE TIME is finally here for the Gymnastic Project team to head to Zambia to teach gymnastics to children there as part of a charity project with African Impact, an organisation that works with community and sports projects throughout the continent.
The aim of African Impact is to harness the power of sport as a tool through which the quality of people’s lives can be greatly improved. The group will demonstrate this by providing the children with a programme of Gymnastics Coaching which also teaches the children about living a healthy lifestyle.
Team members are Hanne Irvine, Joy Duncan and her daughter Mara, Erica Leask, Cory Johnson and Mark Wylie. Between them the group plan to be in Zambia for most of July and August. They will have the most amazing opportunity of actually introducing a new sport to the country.
They will be based in Livingstone near Victoria Falls and will work in a community with many local children who are living in poverty.
As well as teaching a range of classes to children from four to sixteen years (concentrating mainly on floor work as they have no gymnastics equipment) they will be involved in several non-sport community projects, including refurbishing and painting school classrooms; assisting the Elephant Pepper Development Project, which aims to reduce the conflict between farmers and elephants; and supporting a women’s project visiting patients who have HIV, tuberculosis and malaria who often cannot afford to go to the clinic or hospital.
The group would like to say a massive thank you everyone who has made this life-changing experience possible.
