INVITATION: SINAKO - We can!

Make a Difference Day 2011

Clearing broken glass from the netball courts, building a safe spectator area and rejuvenating classrooms with a fresh lick of paint, over 60 employees from Red Bull Netherlands joined SCORE to celebrate ‘Make a Difference Day 2011.’

The event aimed at getting Red Bull employees engaged in activities that would make a difference in the lives of others and coincided with a reward incentive for employees reaching their targets last year. But instead of opting for a city break or ski holiday, SCORE were approached to propose a day where the delegation could visit a community project and get involved. Tess van Zwol, Head of Cultural Marketing for Red Bull said, “We wanted to give something back, even though it was a present for us, we wanted to give back to the world.”  

The fun filled day had teams from Red Bull regenerating the school’s sport facilities from sweeping up courts, to laying the brickwork for IsiphiwoPrimary’s new spectator stands. The group then spent the afternoon joining the young learners in sports activities.

In the spirit of Ubuntu, members of the delegation taught children interesting facts about The Netherlands and in turn, they learnt from young leaders in Khayelitsha more about the community in which they live, the role sport has played in their lives, and experiences that have shaped who they are today.

General Manager of Red Bull Netherlands, Jan Smilde crowned the day the highlight of the delegation’s trip, "I am sure when the group tell people about the trip, that this will be their highlight." 

If your company are interested in organising Corporate Social Responsibility activities or are interested in finding out more about partnerships with SCORE, please contact Strategic Partnerships Manager BettyKgomotlokoa Lallieat betty@score.org.za or +27 21 461 0466.

Bouncing back!

Break time in most schools is a chance for children to catch up with friends. But for children at Zola Business School in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, the sound of the break time bell means that children gather round the tarmac court to watch their class mates compete in the ongoing inter-class sports tournament, part of SCORE’s Youth Leads project.

Sentebale CEO visits SCORE activities in Mbekweni

Driving through the rows of tiny colourful houses and along the township’s garbage strewn streets, the last thing Kedge Martin, CEO of Sentebale, a British charity founded by Prince Harry, expected to see was a million pound sport centre.

Greeted by the Mbekweni Young Leaders, she was taken on a tour of the lively indoor football centre that opened in the community just over 6 months ago coinciding with the kick off of the FIFA World Cup, and funded by British charity Hope Through Action. Since the Mbekweni Sports Centre opened, SCORE has run programmes for children and youth, and more recently, in partnership with Stellenbosch University a programme for disabled learners. The centre is now seen as the hub of social and sporting activity in the community and hopes to reach out to even more people this year with a brand new marketing plan.

After being serenaded by the sweet voices of recent studio successes By Faith, an acapella group of young sports leaders, Kedge joined the children out on the sports field.  Working with children in Lesotho, she sees the importance of sports activities as a tool to learn and develop, and was impressed by the HIV/AIDS awareness activities, delivered under the Kicking AIDS Out! programme and facilitated by the Young Leaders trained by SCORE. 

“She was very impressed by the facility and drew many parallels between children in both Lesotho and South Africa living in social and economic trouble and using sport to better themselves,” said Kwezi Shumi, Project Coordinator of the Mbekweni Community Sport Centre.

Elite football figures visit grassroot programme

Coach of thriving PSL team Ajax Cape Town and SCORE ambassador Foppe de Haan, accompanied former president of Dutch football team SC Heereveen, Riemer van der Velde, to SCORE activities in Western Cape Township, Khayelitsha, during his visit to South Africa.

After watching Ajax’s impressive win over rivals Bidvest Wits, Riemer van der Velde (President of SC Heereveen during their 2000 UEFA Champions League qualification and winner of the 2009 KNVB Cup), visited after school activities organised by SCORE at Vuselela Primary School. The school is one of 25 schools taking part in UNICEF’s Sport for Development programme in the Western Cape.

Impressed by what he saw, Riemer commented, “It’s great to see how technically skilled some of these players are at this young age, some of them certainly have the potential for a career in football.” 

Physical education teacher Mr Mafaxa described the visit as, “Very impressive. Normally I only see him on television as the coach of Ajax. The fact that he is here at our school is great for our learners and an incentive to the work we are doing, during as well as after school time.”

Foppe de Haan has headed coaching clinics in Western Cape Township Mbekweni and recently lent his expertise to SCORE football team 1V United. His involvement with SCORE is continually appreciated.

High praise from the British High Commission

African football legend joins SCORE’s sport festival

Described by some as ‘Africa’s greatest soccer player,’ football legend Pierre Ndaye-Mulamba joined over 400 children at SCORE’s Sport for Development festival to mark World AIDS Day last weekend in Western Cape Township, Khayelitsha.

Subject of a recent documentary film “Forgotten Gold”, Pierre remains the undefeated record holder for the most number of goals scored in the African Cup of Nations competition, a title he has held since 1974. In the same year his team, Congo (then Zaire), became the first sub Saharan African team to play at the FIFA World Cup™ in West Germany.

Refereeing the u15 competition, Pierre returned to the football field, reminded of his experiences as a young beginner, “I started playing when I was 10 years old. When I see these children play, I am reminded of when I used to play. The order of my life was family, then soccer.”

Seeing football at grassroot level, he said, “It is best to start with the young ones, they are most easily influenced.”  He also said that one of the highlights of the festival was, “Seeing different players improve throughout the day. From development like this, they grow.” Parents of the children were especially excited to seePierre take part in the festival, with one father commenting, “Can you believe my son is under the instruction of this legend!”

As 2010 draws to a close the impact of The FIFA World Cup on the world of Sport and Development continues. Pierre says, “I hope that the World Cup has inspired African teams to develop themselves. Now they have seen that African teams like Ghana can go far, and one day an African will hold the cup.”

Mbekweni Community Sport Centre celebrates Women's Day

The Mbekweni Community Sport Centre – funded by The Hope Through Action Foundation (HTA) – hosted 400 youth, community members and its guests of honour – the girls and women of Mbekweni and its surrounds - to commemorate National Women’s Day on 8 August 2010.

The surrounding schools enthusiastically participated in the football and netball games including Langabuya Primary, Imboniselo Primary, Mbekweni Primary, Desmond Tutu High School and Ihlumelo Secondary. The Mbekweni South African Police Service and neighbouring non-profit organizations including a netball team from Fairyland – an informal settlement in Mbekweni - were also in attendance and showed their solidarity in celebrating women by entering teams in to the tournament.

Lively mixed football and netball games were played showcasing the sporting talent of the girls , women and community.

SCORE - a leading Sport and Development organisation whose mission is to change lives through sport and who is HTA’s implementing partner at the Mbekweni Community Sport Centre – coordinated the event in partnership with community stakeholders.

“This centre has really taken off since its launch in June. An event such as this one highlights the incredible female talent we have on our front doorstep and how the centre has become central to the life of this entire community in such a short space of time. Sport is an accessible tool to bring people together and get people talking about gender inequality and discrimination. This centre is a safe place for girls and women to play sports traditionally seen as masculine. Today is a shining example of this, “ said Kwezi Shumi, SCORE’s Mbekweni Community Centre Manager.

Romi Lethabong (18) enjoyed the day immensely.

“I wish it were National Women’s Day every day. Thank goodness for the centre. As a girl I always felt shy to play football but now I can,” she said.

Mrs. Thembsi Qwela – a well respected retired Mbekweni school teacher and current head of the Paarl parole board was the invited guest speaker. Qwela was invited by youth leaders and is fondly remembered by them as an exceptional teacher, women and role model. Qwela delivered a rousing speech discussing women's role in society, politics and in the home and their pivotal role in fighting sexual abuse, crime, drugs and the onslaught of HIV/AIDS.

24-25 April 2010: Kicking AIDS Out! Youth Sports Festival - Oshakati

The 6th edition SCORE Namibia Kicking AIDS Out! Youth Sport Festival took place on the weekend of 24^{th – 25th April in Oshakati. The event was a resounding success with more than 700 athletes, coaches, officials and SCORE volunteers participating.}

The annual event organised by SCORE Namibia in collaboration with the Kicking AIDS Out Network and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture succeeded yet again in bringing together community teams from all twelve (12) communities of Khorixas, Mariental, Keetmanshoop, Gobabis, Swakopmund, Rundu, Oshakati, Omatjete, Tsumkwe, Oshivelo and Opuwo. Community teams took part in soccer, volleyball, netball and, for the first time, basketball. Apart from sports competition activities the participants also took part in cultural ‘edutainment’ presentations with Kicking AIDS Out games.

The annual event, aimed at using sport and physical activity as a means of raising early awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, promoting intercultural understanding and motivating positive behavioural change among youth, was attended by Mr. Katamba, the Deputy Director for Community Sports in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture. He went on to deliver a keynote speech at the closing ceremony, at which he credited SCORE Namibia for being the leader in developing sport at grass roots level in the country.

Jacqueline Shipanga, National Manager of SCORE Namibia addressed the participants gathered at the Oshakati Independence Stadium in the Oshana Region and said, "my message to you and your communities should be clear and simple: Let’s stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, adopt responsible life styles and refrain from crime, drug abuse and other social evils, including early parenthood as it has a negative impact in our communities."

The event that was sponsored by MTC, Nampower, UNICEF and NFA Women’s Desk:

28 Nov 2009: Hillbrow Development Project - World AIDS Day Event

A successful first eight months of the Hillbrow Development project was marked with a World Aids Day celebration ‘Youth can make a difference against crime and AIDS,’ in Marks Park, Melville, Gauteng, attended by Pitso Mosimane, Bafana Bafana coach.

The event involved over 800 participants from five shelters and four schools involved in the central Johannesburg project. The project, funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy involves three main stakeholders, Bidvest Wits Soccer Club, Hillbrow SAPS and SCORE. Twenty ex professional soccer players from the SA Soccer Legends deliver soccer training three times a week to girls and boys from six shelters and seven schools in the Hillbrow area. The soccer training is supplemented by a focus on life and leadership skills from the coaches and SCORE peer educator David Mallela. On the day of the event 11 community volunteers trained in Kicking Aids Out! activities by David delivered Kicking Aids Out! life skills games and activities to over 300 youth. The event itself was sponsored by ABI whose generous support in terms of catering, sound system and motivational speaker enhanced the atmosphere for all involved. It was a real display of partnership with Hillbrow SAPS transporting the majority of the youth from the police station to the venue, and back again.

It was a fitting way to mark the first 8 months of the project, which can only gain momentum in the 2010 year.

SCORE would like to thank the event partners and sponsors:

For more information on the Hillbrow Development project please contact: Clare ‘B’ Barrell on clare@score.org.za .

SCORE International: Hhoyi Heroes - Mpumalanga community team wins Cup of Heroes Finals

The Cup of Heroes is an annual event organised by SCORE, an international Sports for Development organisation working in Southern Africa. Whilst participating teams compete in mixed netball, boys and girls soccer and mixed volleyball tournaments, points are also awarded for fair-play and cultural presentations.

This year's event saw 42 regional teams from Namibia, South Africa and Zambia competing in regional tournaments, with 10 teams making it through to the International Finals held at Essellen Park, Johannesburg, from the 25th to the 27th September. At the end of three days of close competition and an extremely high standard of play, the spirit of the community team from Hhoyi in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, saw them winning first prize. The Hhoyi team walked away with a comprehensive sports kit and a fully paid leadership camp for the whole team.

Category prizes were awarded to the community teams from Dyssellsdorp (Community Service Project), Mapuve (Fairplay Project), Windhoek (Partner Country presentation), Thomo (Volleyball Fairplay), Thomo (Netball Fairplay) and Thomo (Own culture presentation). Betty Lallie from SCORE made special mention of the overall quality of the cultural presentations and the amount of effort each team put into their preparations for the event. As is tradition, the team scores are announced starting with the 10th position, with each team cheering their performance with much celebration. This simply reinforces the events philosophy, that it's not all about winning, and that the opportunity to compete in the International Cup of Heroes Finals is reward enough.

This event forms one of SCORE's three core programs and provides a unique opportunity for the communities in which SCORE operates to showcase their acquired expertise in sports coaching, leadership and administration. Every year, the high level of performance by the teams from Naimibia, shows that the NAM VIP programme is producing good results. Teams from the Eastern Cape Province consistently finish in the top five illustrating that sports leaders in these communities are really working hard on building their communities.

SCORE would like to thank the following stakeholders who helped make this years event possible: Adidas, NIF, The Jakobs Foundation, Sport and Recreation South Africa and the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. A big thanks to all those who played a role, both at a regional and international level, in making this huge event possible. We look forward to next years event which is scheduled to take place at the same venue from the 24th to the 26th September 2010.

Teams playing the mixed netball tournament.	The winning team of Cup of Heroes 2009 - Hhoyi.

South Africa: Sports facility handover and womens day event

SCORE celebrated this womens day event in style in Harare Khayelitsha on Saturday August the 8th.The event doubled as a handover of a multisport facility that was built by SCORE with support from adidas. The multisport facility was built for the community youth and Isiphiwo Primary school that SCORE has been working in for a number of years. The community youth leaders organized different sporting activities for the children and youth of the community.The activities were indigenous games, volleyball, netball, soccer and fun games for the younger children of the community.

Later in the day SCORE’s ambassador, Hans Vonk taught some goal keeping moves and tricks to the youth that attended the womens day event. It was a moment to be remembered by the children and youth as they saw one of the great Football stars of their time interacting and playing with them.