Horse programmes to heal children of Diepsloot

Shumbashaba’s Horse Helping People, located at Shillelagh Farm in Diepsloot, has proven to be not your usual horse programme as it helps heal children from Diepsloot.

“Using horses to promote mental and physical well-being for the children of Diepsloot has been heartwarming and fulfilling to see as they grow in this programme,” Jacky du Plessis of Shumbashaba Community Trust said.

Shumbashaba is a non-profit community organisation which focuses on how horses can positively impact people and help to change lives for the better.

According to Du Plessis, Shumbashaba’s Horses Helping People’s programmes reach out and touch the lives of homes of 250 000 people, where unemployment, poverty and crime are rampant.

“People with or without disabilities are welcome to use the services of Shumbashaba. The income earned from private fee-paying clients is an important source of income which contributes towards running our outreach programmes for participants who cannot afford it. The outstanding funds are raised through fundraising events and donations,” Du Plessis expressed.

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Shumbashaba has developed therapeutic programmes which involve both riding and non-riding. The therapeutic riding programme offers people with disabilities the opportunity to progress in riding as a sport and recreation, while the non-riding programme offers life skills and counselling using the EAGALA methodology recognised world-wide as being a powerful way of helping people restore a sense of self-worth and purpose, key ingredients necessary to improve lives and help people reach their full potential.

Shumbashaba has gone from a one-woman operation offering a therapeutic riding service to people with disabilities to a registered non-profit trust offering a range of programmes which have touched the lives of more than 1 600 people.

“We also run programmes where we work with children and run prevention against substance abuse classes and help children who are exposed to depression in their families,” Du Plessis explained.

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The programmes are recognised locally and internationally and in 2012 Shumbashaba won the FEI’s International Equestrian Federation Development Award for its grassroots ground-based equine-assisted psychotherapy and counselling programmes offered to township youth.

Visit their website to help donate to this organisation.

Details: www.shumbashaba.co.za