Over the course of two weeks in December, the H4H team attended four powerful conferences in Cape Town, South Africa!
Former news anchor and current media strategist San Reddy interviews Tony Blair at the Beyond Sport Summit
These conferences included: The Nike SSCN (Sport for Social Change Network), the Adidas Exchange Program, the International Sport and Development Conference. . .all of which were well positioned around the Beyond Sport Summit. It was truly inspiring to hear the up-close words of inspirational figures like Desmond Tutu and Tony Blair, to sport stars like Mike Richter, Michael Johnson and Oscar Pistorius, to name drop just a few! The field is going way beyond sport, integrating shared values, creating social innovation, setting new standards for corporate involvement and philanthropy, and connecting those who are creating positive change through sport.
It was unbelievable to be immersed with so many amazing delegates, academics, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from 130 countries. Across the world so much is being done to excite, educate, unite and create leaders through sports, from girls boxing to surfing, yoga, art and 
a school using skateboarding in Kabul. At H4H, we are proud to be making a long positive impact in the lives of youth, their families and communities through the hard work and dedication of our staff in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and with the continued support from champions around the globe.
We thank all our friends, sponsors, and partners and look forward to a successful 2012!
Tanya studied nursing and loves working with children and public health and feels she makes a positive impression as a real role model and responsible adult working as a program officer with Grassroots Soccer. Her position involves budgeting and engaging the community, identifying risks, and using peer education and sports, because she says, “sport is a brilliant way to help youth make good decisions.” She also likes chilling with friends and braii’ing (around a Weber grill, probably cooking meat), cheering on the Highlanders or Arsenal, but is an admitted lover of basketball! See you on a court or for a braii in Zimbabwe soon!
On the Saturday of the 10th of September, we then ran a championship tournament with the 8 primary schools who were on top of the log in their communities. They have been competing for 6 months with 4-6 primary schools in
Soccer 4 Hope then had an outreach program with soccer and life skills, where we targeted the Gugulethu area.There we reached out to 1 of the current schools in the Soccer 4 Hope program, Intshinga Primary School, and had had a following outreach at Elukhanyisweni Complex, our newest partner in the ‘Coaching For Hope’ and City of Cape Town women empowerment project. We then targetted the Nyanga and Crossroads area, hosted a tournament at the Crossroads Library, then also in Acacia Park, and last but not least Khayelitsha. There we had a clean-up and gardening campaign at Phaphamani day care center. And last but not least Soccer 4 Hope All Stars/Community Coordinator Vuyani Ngcuka and his MVPs/Coaches Luyolo Madolo, Mzukisi Mlanjeni, and Mzamo Mthsiselwa wrapped it up with a huge street soccer tournament targeting the community at large. It was amazing to see the sight of the community out and supporting this astounding day. Parents came out and supported their children playing, which was fulfiling! There were happy faces from the young participants. The day was wrapped with a ceremony, where the winning teams from the different age groups were given small trophies.
The project is an initiative of Morena Lanniello, a fifth-year Kinesiology student at the University of Calgary and midfield player for the Dinos soccer team. She says the idea started when she was volunteering for the Calgary food bank: “I started talking about how the organisation started and came to the idea of starting something up myself. After a search on the internet I found the Soccer 4 Hope program and contacted Rick Gill – the Canadian Director of Hoops 4 Hope. That’s where Dinos Soccer 4 Hope idea started.”
