Non-Profit Status Approved

After almost a year of waiting we have finally received our certificate. This certificate verifies that we are registered as a Non-profit organisation. For more information please see our legal page.

The Venue

We have finally secured a venue in the heart of Khayelitsha. I need to thank Mandla and his team for their generosity. They have given us use of the venue for no charge .The Venue is big enough for us to host all our sport activities and they have provided a room where we will be able to set up, up to 15 computers. We are currently just waiting for our Non-profit status to be approved before approaching co-operate companies for funding!

From Streets To Ice

The year is almost at it's end and the process of starting up a Non-profit is a grueling one but with all that's going on, the street skater boys have really impressed. Almost religiously the lads have gone to practice every Sunday and it can be said with confidence that they are now worthy of being called ice hockey players. Mogamad(12), Zihaad(13) and Irshaad(14) have excelled tremendously this past year and in 2014 all three of them will be up to receive their Western Province colours. Mogamad, the youngest, scored a hat-trick at the last PeeWee game of the season.Mogamad has been invited to play the opening game for the All Stars on 2 December 2013. I could not be more proud of him as his enthusiasm for the game and skating makes him a true hockey player. Next year will bring us many challenges and I am looking forward to seeing the boys release their full potential

The Journey So Far

To all our readers I would just like to thank you for the support. The process of starting a Non-profit is no easy job but by far the most rewarding job, I can tell you that. My journey has been quite tough and I do not see it easing up any time soon. It is hard sometimes because a waiters salary is so inconsistent and it is mentally draining, trying to juggle bills and making this project a success at the same time. I have come to an realisation though, and that is that time is on my side. When I started this project I was in such a rush to get things moving and in the end just was disappointed half way down the road because I was either let down by certain people or upset because " the system" is just messed up. Now I am in a different space and have excepted that things do take time and forcing it will only make yourself stress to much. Eston has been working round the clock to finish his final exams and he still continues to amaze me with what he can create with film. Our video releases have stalled for now until Eston has finished his finals. Then he will be taking sometime off to see the parents. By the end of July Eston will be back and we, as a team, will be pumping out new video footage at least once a week. We unfortunately have no more gear to film our journey which is a bit of a bummer. Until now we have been fortunate for Eston has had permission from his University to film our project with their gear, however, his studies have come to an end and I am at a cross road. James from Uthondo has been giving me some advice and hopefully by the time Eston has returned from his rest, I will have raised funds for our gear to get our story back on track.

Sunday Awesomeness

It was just another regular Sunday for me, which meant picking up the boys at 7:50am. As I drove towards the meeting point I could see little Gamad bouncing up and down like a rubber ball, obviously excited to get to the ice rink. I just love the drive on Sunday mornings because there is absolutely no traffic and what makes it awesome is that Sachi and Gamad have such a funny sense of humour that we keep ourselves entertained with a lot of nonsense talk. Their skills have improved so much these past few months and I finally purchased street hockey gear for both of them, so that they can practice in the week as well and it totally shows. Both of them are much more confident with the puck and stick, the skating is just so natural to them. When they came off the ice, Jason took them to the equipment room and kitted both of them out with all the gear that they need which includes, skates, ice hockey sticks, helmets, upper and lower body padding which amounts to about R6 000($600) Then he gave us a couple of Forms that will register them for the Western province Ice hockey Association, which would put the average player back R3 500($350) a year. As you might have gathered by now my boys are not average and I am so privileged and proud of them to be recognised as serious contenders for the league. Registration will take a couple of weeks but soon they will be playing competitively, which is what we aim to do with so many more kids at The Imilli Project. On the drive back to town, they could not stop bubbling about the gear and their first match and how one day they going to play for South Africa. A dream that just became a little bit more real on this awesome Sunday.

Free Stuff

Today was one of those days that just put a smile on my face. Eston has been working very hard on his studies and it has been tough for him trying to juggle studies with the project. One thing that does have an impact on him is his back. He injured it as a young boy and there are some days that he will be editing in excruciating pain. It does not help that he spends most of his time on an old manky plastic garden chair either. I was busy working online and came upon this website called Greater Good SA which is a really awesome website to connect with causes and people who are looking to reach out to non-profits. I saw a post that advertised free office furniture and quickly thought of Eston.I sent the guy, Terry , an email not expecting a response at all because people go nuts for free stuff. Eston and I where busy working on episode 3 when the email from Terry came through with his phone number . Twenty minutes later Eston was sitting in his new(old) chair! Thank you so much Terry, you have made a young editor very happy and I hope your new office space is the bomb! It is the reason why I am still smiling right now, we do not have much to build on our project because, to be honest, we are poor waiters and students trying to make a difference. What I do know is that we are on the right path because since we started this movement everything has fallen into our lap and we are only so grateful for that. God has our back on this one , well at least mine, not sure what Eston is being punished for :) Our next big mission is to set up our computer class. We have the facility, we have the people that is going to install it for us(for free) all we need is computers. As soon as we are registered, which will be in June, we can apply for computers from certain companies. Like everything else is a lengthy process and we simply can not wait that long, we got things to teach man! So if you know of any company or individuals who are looking to get new equipment or have new computers and got a bunch of the old working ones stashed somewhere, please email us.

Ice Hockey Night

Last night we took the boys to their first ice hockey game. I have never been to a game myself so it was a new experience for all of us. After having a quick meal at Nando's, we bought our tickets and took our seats quite close to the rink itself. Man what a game. We played United Arab Emirates and SA completely thrashed them. At half time the score was 8 - O but what we all noticed was the pace of the game. Clearly it is the fastest ball sport to date, if you can call a puck a ball. The intensity on ice is truly insane! The speed and agility these guys poses is phenomenal. It is definitely not for the faint hearted as these boys plough into each other like massive overloaded trucks that breaks have failed. You can not believe the hits that some of these oaks take but they just get up and carry on! The boys where fixated on the game and you could see the excitement on their faces as they probably imagined how they would play an a couple months time. I'm just so glad that they share the same enthusiasm and passion for skating as I did. When I saw them skate for the first time I knew they would. It is a combination of adrenalin, focus and knowing your abilities and pushing it to the limit. You think nothing can ever beat that feeling until you do something like bungy jumping. Another Episode for another time though.