Day 31: The Backpack & the GCU Academy
October 5th, 2012
It was a rough start getting up this morning but going to the GCU Academy was completely worth it!
About the GCU Academy
Just to give you a little history on the reason we so badly wanted to visit the kids at GCU:
- GCU was founded in 2001 by Mario van Neikedk who was born in Heideveld and whom experienced community problems such a gang violence and low literacy first hand
- GCU is an academy set up to design a ‘gang for good’, helping keep the kids off the streets and focused on areas such a sport and learning
- GCU does not only offer soccer but a variety of community activities such as jump rope, tutoring, mentorship programs, life skills, school for drop outs, etc.
GCU allows travellers at The Backpack to come get involved by helping coach, play with the kids and just brightening their days – even if it is just for one afternoon of your travels.
So ideally this day was to help teach us a bit about the history of GCU Academy, to meet the players and their coaches and just have a great time spending the day with these kids!
Success! They were learning skill development through interactive games (songs, puzzles, etc) today which was amazing to see how enjoyable these activities were for these kids! A truly remarkable experience, I don’t think there is any reason in the world not to visit the GCU Academy if you are ever stopping into Cape Town, this Academy is fantastic!
The rest of the day was designated to shopping at the local Checkers to buy some much needed (that is a joke) chocolate bars and South African treats for our friends and family back home!
It is our friend Stefano’s birthday tonight so we are planning a nice dinner out at the V&A Waterfront and then a night on Long Street for some celebrations! Updates will come when I wake up tomorrow morning! Cheers!
The Official List of Cape Town Excursions:
- Table Mountain = complete!
- Lion’s Head > Cape Peninsula Tour to Cape Point =complete!
- Robben Island > Wine Flies Wine Tours = complete!
- Township Tour = complete!
- Visiting the GCU Academy = complete!
- Cape Town Bike Tour
