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Students from St. Benedict's and Nokuthula Special School make up the Special Olympics South Africa Unified Sports basketball team. |
Teamwork Inspires Change
It is not often that pupils get an opportunity to learn more outside the classroom than inside, more away from their text books than seated at their wooden desks, but this is the case at St. Benedict's private school in South Africa, where pupils choose to learn life's greatest lessons on the basketball court.
At the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, students from St. Benedict's private school and Nokuthula Special School combined to form the Special Olympics South Africa Unified Sports basketball team.
The team was the inspiration of Ephraim Mohlakane, a Special Olympics South Africa athlete and staff member of St. Benedict's. He proposed the idea in 2004 and, within weeks, a partnership with Nokuthula Special School was forged and two Special Olympics Unified Sports basketball teams were formed. Regular Friday afternoon practices resulted not only in improved skills for the players, but also in meaningful friendships as the boys began to interact off the court. The most inspiring change was the transformation in attitudes toward people of different racial groups and a growing sense of understanding and tolerance toward people with intellectual disabilities. What began innocently as a sport initiative grew to a platform where athletes and partners could bounce ideas around like basketballs, shoot ideas like three pointers and pass praise in all directions.
The cost of schooling a pupil at St. Benedict's is high, but this time parents really felt that they were getting their money's worth and openly praised principal Graeme Edwards for opening the minds of their children and exposing them to a movement which is as pure and inspirational as the athletes who lead it.
And lead they did--the team won a bronze medal at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games.
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