Edendale Hospital

Yesterday was a very different Saturday afternoon

The Hirsch team consisting of Biance, Kuhle, Dayne and I went to

Whizzkids United who run a Health Academy in Edendale, which is a township area just outside of PMB.

At the Health Academy

they offer over 20 health, education and empowerment services, for young people aged 11-24. This includes HIV testing, counselling and treatment, homework support clubs, art club, feeding scheme and an employability programme called Game Changers- just to name a few.

Each year they have over 6000 young people access our services and  have 24 schools in their local area. They work with these schools, delivering  life skills programmes called  On the Ball which use football to teach Life Orientation. To date over 45,000 young people in South Africa have completed their On the Ball programme.

There really are lots of exciting and great things happening at Whizzkids United, and they have a set of programmes that specifically focus on girls empowerment. This includes girls football teams, a Mixed Gender League in which boys and girls play football together, specialised family planning for adolescents, and a school shuttle service for at risk or vulnerable girls so that they can come to their Health Academy safely.

The team and i went in to entertain the teenagers  and we gave out

panty packs to the girls so that they wouldn’t have to use what little money they have, to buy sanitary pads every month.

It really was a fun time with the girls – my thanks to Bianca for organising, Dayne for videoing (the video will be on youtube later)

Stefan and his team for hosting us and Kuhle for interpreting for me and mostly to Caroline Scully of Whizzkids for the invitation.