School Project involves 85% of kids living in remote Greenlandic settlement
News
The CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’ has reached a remote small settlement in central-western Greenland at the end of Evighedsfjorden, Kangaamiut – where now as much as 85% of the children living there play Volleyball!
To reach Volleyball Club KTVI in Kangaamiut, it takes more than 26 hours from Copenhagen. The journey is by plane from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq, followed by another flight to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. From there it takes another plane to Maniitsoq and a subsequent journey by boat for the last 50 km to eventually reach Kangaamiut. In this small settlement with only 293 inhabitants, Barnabas Kreutzmann and Marianna Kreutzmann have created a small volleyball miracle. From having only seven boys and girls under the age of 14, in just two months they have managed to get more than 30 children involved in the club. The coaching staff has expanded from four to seven within the same period, thus accounting for very impressive results.
Barnabas Kreutzmann“Even though we live in a small community with limited opportunities, we can achieve great results with Volleyball and make our sport attractive to children and young people. It requires a lot of energy but also a lot of motivation to run a club when tournaments and matches can only be played once a year. The distances are simply far, far too great for that to be possible. We must motivate the children through the weekly training and constantly improve ourselves and create a good environment.”
The two coaches got plenty of motivation at their eight-day coaching course in Copenhagen in addition to the CEV Coaches Convention in Skopje. As Barnabas Kreutzmann puts it, “Our 12-day trip to Copenhagen and Skopje has had a huge impact on our settlement, so we are very happy for what CEV has done for us.”
The success with recruitment is primarily due to the initiatives the club took around school visits. The school, Kangaamiut Atuarfiat, which has a total of 36 students, was visited three times in October and November alone – when all the students were taught Kidsvolley. This induction really paid off, as the club has managed to recruit 23 new members.
This means that approximately 85% of all children in the settlement now play Volleyball! If we could achieve the same elsewhere in Europe, Volleyball would be assured of a golden future! Barnabas Kreutzmann will continue working at the school over the winter. There are not many new children to recruit, but for sure the current members of the club will get and enjoy even more volleyball training. As a side benefit, the school’s physical education teacher will be better equipped to be able to teach Kidsvolley in the future.