Hi everyone! It’s Angela, Thanda’s founder and director, here again. For this entry we’ve asked one of our most inspiring teachers and one of the community’s best role models, Melusi Cele, to write about his experience at Thanda. Melusi was himself a Thanda student in 2009 with Raah as his teacher. He then volunteered as an English assistant for a year before he became Thanda’s basketball coach. Basketball is one of Thanda’s six high school programs, giving support to 20 children every day. They receive a meal, basketball practice, and educational and emotional support. Here is Melusi’s story…
“Lots of people here think basketball is a sport for rich people only, but they are wrong! Basketball is for everyone who believes that one day he can make it, not only in basketball, but throughout life’s struggles. In my own experience I never played professional basketball before, but now I know the rules and how to bounce a ball just like a professional player would… but within your students there is a gap in their hearts that just teaching them basketball can’t fill. I want my students to love basketball from the heart so then we can face life’s challenges through it together.
Melusi
One of my basketball students said, “To me basketball is where I get to forget about everything in my life, where I am taught about my mistakes. Basketball allows me to be proud and increases my self-esteem because of the position I play in my team. The day I played basketball was the day when my life changed, I’ve learnt how to respect others and have discipline. The kids have left bad things such as drugs and crime behind to join our team. Everyone in my community is crazy about basketball.”
Making friends through basketball
One day one of my players said, ‘Coach I can’t stay focused on the books at school or when I’m trying to study’. Well I told him to come to the basketball court next Monday with his books. On Monday he came to the basketball court and I gathered all my players and I told them to sit in a semi-circle. I told them to grab their physical science book and then I told them to imagine that the book was a basketball ball and that someone was trying to take it away from you, ‘what would you do?’ They all said protect it and then score. I said, ‘what if you had to read the opponents defense first?’ They said read the ball and focus on it. Then they all started holding their books tight and reading them and focusing on what they were reading. I did that for an hour and a half and they all now understand how to protect your ball in the game and how to hold tightly to your book at the same time.
Warming up for a game
I try to link their life and basketball together because just giving them fancy styles on basketball court, won’t make them the leaders of tomorrow. We are trying to win the hearts of those who are not motivated and who think the easy way is the right way. It is a strategy to help them not make the wrong decisions when they are alone and to find answers at school and throughout their future and life. Basketball to me means a tool to uplift my students, so they can see the right way and to show them that whether you are rich or poor, it doesn’t matter- you can make a difference.
Thanda Basketball Tournament
Another basketball student said, “Basketball means a supporter and lifeguard to me because of the help it has given to me and I’m proud of being a basketball player. It has changed my life because I can behave myself more than before and it also changed my lifestyle as I now know that being good is a good thing and it also makes me proud of myself. It has changed the situation that my community was in and it has also improved my community’s infrastructure that is why I now respect my community members”
- Thanda Basketball players at a recent Tournament
My next mission is to spread basketball in these rural areas because people think it’s only for people who live in the townships. Even though we may stay on dusty roads and have a rough court or play basketball barefoot, we know that our generation will make a change.”
“It means a lot to my future. It changed my future, now I’m a best achiever in all my subjects. It changed my community by giving me an opportunity to play and be part of a team.”- Thanda basketball student
Making food after a basketball game
Melusi has been instrumental in helping us develop the high school curriculum, with engaging and inspiring lesson plans that change kids’ lives. He now volunteers on weekends, playing basketball with his team and he works hard to organize games against other teams. His kids are training a younger team at a neighboring school and four of his team members were recently selected to be on the Ugu district team, where they will have an opportunity to travel and receive specialized training. Melusi’s team also recently decided to help elderly members in the community on weekends.
- Melusi’s kids help out in the Thanda gardens
With the new Thanda library, the basketball kids have a new opportunity. They are some of the most frequent users of the library and when asked about the library, this is what Melusi said:
“The Thanda Library is like a home to me. It’s where my passion starts, it’s where I believe I can change the world and we can change the world. It is where my inner ideas come out; it is where the love of reading starts. Whenever I’m in the library I realize that there is something I need to do in the community out there in the dusty roads. The books I read give me warmth and strength that my generation will make a change through struggles facing us all and issues that make us lose hope. A library is a place of hope and inspiration. A library is a family, the books are your family members- they give you ideas, love, information, warmth, jokes, happiness and laughter at the end of the day you step out of the library you have the vision that you can make a change. It’s as if you now know the community has dignity and it represents the youth, those happy faces reading and laughing together inside the library. We now can stand for the community and say knowledge is what we have. If poverty fights us, we fight back with education we have. When we are all in the library we are lawyers, teachers, nurses of the community. The library is my whole life- it contains the community’s future.”
- Basketball team members enjoy the library
Melusi having fun with Thanda kids
