Written by S4H Program Manager, Wewe Sokoyi
Community Outreach Programs
The following was our idea behind the community outreach programs: we wanted to keep our participants invloved in sporting activities, as we have an U/14 girls league running in 8 communities. We wanted to give them the platform to showcase the talent and get recognition in their communities, as there is mentality that girls are not good in playing soccer and soccer is a male dominated sport here. We wanted to create a path in supporting and changing that mentality.
Because we are a sporting organization,we also wanted to do something for the community too, a way that we could get on the ground and support programs and people in the community.
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.
It felt very good knowing that we had done something positive for our communities and reached +- 400 girls and boys in our FUNdamental life skills activities and soccer!
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.”
On the 24th of June, Coaching for Hope in cooperation with the City of Cape Town officially launched the ‘Empowerment of Women and Girls through Football Project’. The event was held at the Athlone Stadium and brought together all partners and stakeholders, including Mayco member Thandeka Gqada (Community Services member who was responsible for the launch) and representatives of The South African Football Association. Also present were the projects six implementing partner organisations, of which Soccer 4 Hope is one.
In Phase 1, Coaching for Hope delivered a coach training workshop to 30 women from these 6 communities. In Phase 2, these 30 women are now delivering 3 football sessions per week to 60 girls between the ages of 12-18 on their community’s artificial turf.
The project will run for an initial 20 weeks with a longer term view to establishing clubs in each of the 6 sites that will be affiliated to SAFA Cape Town.
UNESCO Special Event on Maximizing the Power of Sport in France
