I chose the article, " Fun Days Out: Normalizing Social Experiences for Refugee Children." It was a very eye opening article on how many children are traumatized each day by what they experience in some African countries. The program was developed by Flinder's University School of Social Administration and Social Work and was established by the Loss and Grief Centre in Adelaide, South Australia.
The creators of this program believed that populations of people are overlooked in terms of how each individual deals with a loss, grief, or trauma. The program believed that through arts, drama, and sport, along with many other activities that they could indeed change the lives of many children. Their goal was to rehabilitate these children so that one day they could play a significant role in contributing to the community development of their hometown.
This article relates to aspects of community recreation development in several ways. It is helping children through sport in order to build their self-confidence, to finally realize that life has more to offer than what they originally had in mind. It creates relationships that these children will cherish for the rest of their lives. What is different about this type of community development is that the program was created in order to help the children one day help those who were in the same situation. Their long term goal is to one day build a better community in their hometowns in Africa whether they focus on sport or something else.
In order for this program to work, the Loss and Grief Centre need volunteers. The average number of children participating in the program each day has increased from 30 to 80 children in five years. The Centre now has roughly 50 volunteers but just like any other community development program they need more. The program is rapidly developing making life better for more and more children every day.
I hope you enjoyed my first entry – the more comments the better.
-Mark Phillips
Link: http://library.mtroyal.ca:2058/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=107&sid=fb667304-8af7-41b7-be0b-2d9bf6a8acb7%40sessionmgr115&vid=5
What an excellent first blog entry ever Mark! I bet you're beginning to feel addicted to this now.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article! This is definitely an aspect of sport and recreation that I love, not only is it super awesome and tons of fun, it can be used as a therapeutic and healing vehicle. The people who established this program had it right, if they want to build a better Africa, they need to instil confidence in the rising generation, and sport and recreation programming is a great way to do that.
Great job, interesting article.
ReplyDeleteSport is definitely a great way to bring people together especially in this setting. Without sport the neglected kids may continue to struggle through a life without meaning. Bringing in sport gives them a sense of belonging to something and a definite enjoyment, something in which they must need greatly at this point. Awesome they continue to grow and now have 50 people volunteering!
Great choice of article Mark. Just having a lecture from the organization 'Right to Play', and having a conversation with one of their volunteers, it is obvious that programs such as the one you mention do have an extremely positive influence on these poor traumatized children. Growing up in Canada, I can only imagine and try to empathize with the horrible events that they have had to endure. Programs such as these can provide, let it be only for a few hours day, some psychological relief from their everyday lives. I believe it was Theo Fleury, who suffers from alcoholism and other horrible teenage traumas, that said (paraphrased) that playing hockey and being on the ice with his teammates was the only escape he had from the horrors of his everyday life. This is coming from someone that had the privilege and means to be able to play hockey, so one can imagine how these kids must feel when they have nothing but the clothes on their backs.
ReplyDeleteGood post! Always nice to be reminded how lucky we really are, and to appreciate the little things we sometimes take for granted.
Great blog post mark!
ReplyDeleteChildren are a great place to start when it comes to community development. They are the future of their community, and with the right influence they will lead their community to improve. Children are very impressionable and easily influenced. With the right mindset and self confidence they can accomplish anything they set their minds to it. Its good to see how sport can play such a role in struggling communities.