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Unified Sports
Unified Recreational and Awareness Day
Lumka, Youth Leader
Lumka
Sindiswa, Youth Leader
Sindiswa
Region
Africa
Program
South Africa
Project Year
2022
Lumka and Sindiswa want to recruit more athletes and Youth Leaders to Special Olympics by hosting a Unified Recreation Day.

About The Project Leaders

Lumka is a 19-year-old from Durban, Kwa Zulu Natal South Africa. She is a Special Olympics South Africa athlete who has been participating in Special Olympics for the past 9 years, in the sports of athletics, netball and ladies soccer. Lumka is the current Provincial Athlete Leadership Council chairperson and sits on the National ALC. She became a Youth Leader in 2017 when she was trained under the Athlete leadership program. Lumka has always been a leader at school but believes her work with Special Olympics has allowed her to develop her skills even further.

Sindiswa is a 20-year-old from Durban, South Africa. Her journey with Special Olympics began in January of 2019. In 2020, Sindiswa was nominated by Lumka to become her Unified partner so she could work with her directly in developing programs and activities as Youth Leaders. In August of 2021, Sindiswa attended a Youth Summit in Gauteng where she met Unified pairs from each province in South Africa. Sindiswa appreciated that experience so much because she got to meet people, learn more about Special Olympics and develop her leadership skills.

The Inspiration

Lumka and Sindiswa feel that in their community there is a lack of awareness of Special Olympics, more specifically in the mainstream schooling environment. These Youth Leaders see a need to host awareness campaigns using Unified sports to raise awareness and engage mainstream schools, the larger community and other youth in Special Olympics. With this project, they also hope to be able to recruit other youth leaders and find a way to spread the campaign far enough to reach the whole province.

The Plan

Through their project, Lumka and Sindiswa will hold a recruitment campaign, visit Special and mainstream schools, host a Special Olympics “orientation” for the community. As a final event they will recruit youth and athlete leaders, and plan and execute a Unified Recreation Day.

Project Goals

Their project aims to create a more inclusive environment within local schools and create awareness of and advocate for Special Olympics and its missions within the community.