Children are our future. They are the wealth of our society and they determine the path that it will follow. How we respond to our children decides the future potential not only of Germany but also of the whole world. goals4kids aims at giving perspectives to children and supporting them in education and training. Only thus will children have a chance to play an active part in our community.
10 Bavarian children which were accepted into the educational training program of goals4kids met for their first workshop in the premises of the Bavarian Ministry of Education on the Praterinsel at the beginning of March 2012. The workshop was led by pedagogical counselor Mrs Silke Heming and had as main goal to get to know the children to cater for their needs and support their individual developments in future.
These children should learn how to define short-term goals and how to implement them. Each child wrote down his/her goals on a big sheet of paper, which later should be hung up at home to remind them every day of what they set out to achieve.
Various games in the garden of the Ministry of Education by magnificent weather ended this exciting day with many new experiences and impressions for the children.
At the beginning of December 2011, it was Bavaria’s turn. After the selection of 16 children from South Africa in 2010, State Secretary Bernd Sibler and goals4kids Managing Director Tomas Kanovsky awarded 10 children with sponsorships -singled out of over 20 Bavarian schools and accepted into the educational training program of goals4kids.
During the press conference in the Ministry for Education in Munich, State Secretary Bernd Sibler thanked goals4kids for the engagement and expressed the hope that even more children from socially disadvantaged environments will continue to be admitted into the program, also by further donations.
At the end of the school year 2011 that ended in South Africa last December, the students sponsored by goals4kids all wished to spend one day in the theme park Ratanga Junction near Cape Town. We were more than glad to fulfill that wish and as a reward at the end of the day, we looked into very many happy faces.
Afterwards, goals4kids invited the employees of its partner organization Impumelelo for a Christmas meal and celebrated a good and exciting past year in one big family.
During her trip to Germany, Helen Zille, Premier of the South African Province Western Cape also visited Kulmbach after Berlin and Munich.
As patron of goals4kids, she participated in a sports event organized by the students of Caspar-Vischer-Gymnasium (secondary school) in favor of the association.
“The German Women’s Team ensured during the World Cup held in Germany with seven scored goals that children from socially disadvantaged families from Bavaria have the chance of additional support,“ said the Minister for Culture and Sports Dr. Spaenle. Bavaria is the first German state in which goals4kids is active. Seven goals were scored for Germany during the Soccer World Cup – but goals4kids topped up that number to ten educational sponsorships. These sponsorships will be awarded to children from all over Bavaria. The Ministry for Culture will help goals4kids with the task of choosing the children.
Unfortunately, the German women were defeated by the Japanese team and knocked out of the World Cup. The men won therefore by 16:7. We would like to thank both teams for great soccer matches and for the many scored goals.
But the true winners are 10 children in Germany, which receive an educational sponsorship until their age of 18. And this happens although the women only scored 7 goals. Thanks to the support of AGO AG Kulmbach, we could bring the number up to 10 sponsored children.
Altogether, goals4kids assists now 26 children in Germany and South Africa in their education and training. This number should increase in the future. For this reason, we would like to ask for your donations in order to award further sponsorships to children.
The first goals4kids life skills workshop in the office of our partner Impumelelo was well attended and ran successfully. Only two children were absent. The other fourteen children were fetched by bus and driven from Atlantis to Cape Town. The session started at 9am and workshop facilitator, Patti Bruyns, provided each child with their own name tag and reading materials.
Managing Director, Mr. Tomas Kanovsky, introduced goals4kids in the presence of the President of the soccer club FC Bayern München, Mr. Uli Hoeneß, and approximately other 800 guests at the 3rd Bayreuther Ökonomiekongress (economic conference) on May 20, 2010. Mr. Kanovsky gave an insight with interesting details into current projects of the association in Germany and South Africa, and explained the concept of goals4kids on the topic of sustainability.