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Chapter News
We'd like to thank the following sponsors.
Ethembini school, South Africa.
Achilles NYC to assist Ethembeni school during the week of May 21, 2000


Achilles New York City has teamed up with British Airways to assist one our international Kids chapters. Via donation, sponsorship and fundraising efforts, Achilles NYC has acquired an impressive cache of donated computers and adaptive equipment for The Ethembeni School, a school for the physically disabled and the visually impaired located in Hillcrest (outside Durban), South Africa. British Airway's 'Cargo For Good' program will ship the donations at no charge.

At present, Ethembeni has a total enrollment of 320 pupils, all of whom board in hostels on campus. The students range in age from four to nineteen years old. The school's objective formerly centered solely upon academics. However, the curriculum focus has recently shifted to meet the needs of the students' real-life situation. Not only are the students disabled, but the majority of them are also from rural, disadvantaged tribal families within the KwaZulu-Natal area of South Africa. This combination makes the opportunity to continue with a college education impossible. The Ethembeni Business and Training Centre was created to meet this essentiality. Although the school is still academic, a heavy emphasis is placed on the purposeful need to offer practical trade and life skills that will ensure independence by enabling students to pursue technical jobs in their communities after they graduate.

The Achilles Track Club of Ethembeni conducts weekly practices and is responsible for the introduction of running and other sports to the students. They have developed many talented athletes and as a byproduct, have helped dispel the negative and erroneous perception that disabled means unable.

British Airways' "Cargo for Good" is a not-for-profit that is run by British Airways Employees with occasional cargo and employee support from Continental Airlines. Continental is involved with this trip through fundraising. The basic service of "Cargo for Good" is the shipment of donated items free-of-charge to impoverished areas along the routes they service. The Airlines are particularly excited about this trip as it aids in the effort to make a lifelong societal impact upon an under served population in an under served community.

DONATIONS TO DATE:
  • 2 Thermoform Machines - American Thermoform Corporation. Retail Value: $2,250 each
  • Jaws for Windows (adaptive voice-synthesized software program) - Henter-Joyce, Inc. Donated a 40-user site license. Retail value of package: $12,750.
  • 20 Personal Computers, 2 printers and 1 NetServer (ALL NEW) - Hewlett-Packard.
  • 25 Personal Computers (Used) - Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ).
  • SHLEPPERS Moving Comapny - All packaging materials needed for delivering the computers.

If you would like to donate an old computer or make a monetary donation to this project, call Project Director, Adrienne Cooney, at Achilles (212) 354-0300 or email: AchillesClub@aol.com

LONG TERM GOALS

Via the Internet, we intend to link the Ethembeni School with our local Achilles Kids Program at The Lavelle School for the Blind (Bronx, New York) as buddy-schools. Using e-mail, letter writing and our web-site, the two schools will learn about each other's countries and cultures. Over the next year, we will introduce the following elements:
  • Virtual Track Meet(s) - A track meet in which the two schools are given a list of track events broken into different age/disabilities groups. The two schools will report their results to the New York Office and we will announce the results on our web-site.
  • New York City Marathon vs. Durban Marathon - Using our specially designed maps that break down the marathons mile-by-mile (see attached map), the Ethembeni students will complete the NYC Marathon course while the Lavelle School kids complete the Durban Marathon. They will compete as a class and walk/run the course in increments. Again, results will be announced on the web-site. The NYC Marathon project is currently in operation within our 78 schools throughout the City. The kids love it!
  • Pen pals - We will encourage coaches/teachers from the two schools to develop an e-mail pen pal relationship with each other. We hope that the students will write e-mails and regular letters sharing questions and stories about their lives.