STAFF from The University of Leeds and Leeds Trinity University - both key members of the Bambisanani Partnership - have recently visited South Africa to establish links with a range of different partners, and restart their successful international sports development programme.

During the Covid period both universities worked remotely with colleagues and organisations in South Africa to understand the landscape and form new exciting partnerships.

The team at Leeds Trinity University have been working with colleagues at the Imbali Education and Innovation Precinct and Durban University of Technology to explore potential areas for curriculum exchange and development in relation to their respective degree provision within sport and sports coaching. This includes a digital exchange project in 2021 where students from both the UK and South Africa collaborated to develop coaching resources and session plans to support delivery of multi-sports sessions across the KwaZulu-Natal region.

The University of Leeds has been looking to expand and develop its programme of cycling to more schools and young people across Kwazulu-Natal. To do this they have been working with a local NGO called KZN Cycling to look at the potential of developing a partnership to establish a cycling network that delivers programmes across the year, by local people, for local people.

Andy Lockwood, of The University of Leeds and Chris Rowley, of Leeds Trinity University, spent a week in South Africa to meet with various partners and stakeholders to formalise the progress that has been made and to explore emerging opportunities for the universities and the Bambisanani Partnership.

During the visit the team met with various government officials, Durban University of Technology (DUT) and KZN Cycling. The team also had the opportunity to visit existing partners and friends and meet face to face for the first time in three years.

The team attended a specially arranged conference at DUT to focus on the development of sport across the region. This conference was attended by a range of government departments, National Governing Bodies and local coaches and players, with Andy and Chris also delivering a presentation around the Application of Sport Psychology within Training, Competition and Sports Coaching.

The visit to KZN Cycling saw the team meet with their staff teams, visit a local cycling hub and attend a community cycling clinic in a rural village. The Bambisanani Partnership is committed to developing the partnership to deliver a local hub to get cycling into communities that need it the most

The visit was an incredible success and the universities and the Bambisanani Partnership are now well set to develop their work and to restart their exciting visits in 2023.

David Geldart from the partnership said: “Massive thanks to Andy and Chris for this outstanding development work. We had worked hard during the COVID period to both maintain and develop new relationships virtually but there is nothing quite like being on the ground and meeting in person. We are now in a great position to expand the university strands of our work in South Africa in 2023.”

The Bambisanani Partnership is a multi-award-winning UK based charity that originated as a partnership between St Mary’s School in Menston, UK and Mnyakanya High School in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 2006. The partnership, which is run entirely by volunteers, uses the power of sport as a catalyst to promote education, health, global citizenship and leadership and has gained international acclaim for its work.