Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project

We are really excited that the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project is to be associated with the launch of a new football website called insideworldfootball

Created by leading British sports journalist, Duncan Mackay, insideworldfootball, is a new unbeatable resource designed to keep you in touch with the planet's favourite sport.  The wesite is brought to you by the same team that has made insidethegames the world's leading website on the business of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement.

The website was launched this week and features a fantastic advert for the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project.

Norman Brook has also contributed a blog that is featured on the website all about our fund raising project.

Click here to visit the site.

Howard Gayle the first black player to play for Liverpool Football Club has pledged to support the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project.  Howard travelled to Hout Bay last year with the Liverpool Community Coaching Team and worled with some of the young soccer players from the informal settlement.  He experienced at first hand the state of the existing soccer fieled and understands better than most the need for a synthetic pitch.

Howard was born in Toxteth in Liverpool and was at the Liverpool club for six years but was only given a total of five first team matches, later playing for several clubs including Birmingham City, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers. His finest hour for Liverpool came in the 1981 European Cup semi-final second leg away at Bayern Munich and he was rewarded with a winners medal at the end of that season, as a non-playing substitute in the final. Earlier in his career he had helped England win the 1984 UEFA European Under 21 Football Championships in which he scored a goal in the final against Spain.

The Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project is starting to attract media coverage.  Here in South Africa, local newspaper, Sentinel News, featured the project as its main sports story of the week.  Over in Northern Ireland the Belfast Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Life, also featured an article on the project by the sports journalist, Gerry Carson.

More media interest is promised with an announcement due shortly about two important partnerships for the project.

The Lions Club of Hout Bay organised under 11 and under 13 soccer tournaments recently to coincide with the local school holidays. Both tournaments attracted a number of teams from the town including teams from Imizamo Yethu.

The under 11 trophy was won by African Brothers, one of the teams from Imizamo Yethu, and the under 13 trophy by Celtics of Hout Bay.

The tournament was not without its own controversy with the ages of several team members being questioned.  The organisers stating that next year the players will have to have SAFA Cape Town registration cards in order that their ages can be confirmed.

Our heading is a well know quote only we are going to ammend this to...............

The journey of £300,000 pounds starts with the first ten pledges and first ten pounds donated.

That happened today. The first ten people signed up and pledged to raise £300 each representing £3000 pledged or 1% of our goal.

Also today we received our first donation through the justgiving website. Jem Lawson a former schoolteacher and leading light in triathlon in England has decided to raise £300 by asking his friends to sponsor him between £1 and £10 to complete the Great North Swim. This event takes place on the 13th September and involves swimming a mile in Lake Windermere.

The first person to support Jem's effort has just become the first person to donate to the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project.

One of the first individuals to pledge to raise £300 towards the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project is Gerry Wood who originates from the UK but is a long term resident of Hout Bay.  Gerry received an award this week from the Lions Club of Hout Bay in recognition of his dedicated and distinguished service to the benefit of the Hout Bay community.

Gerry received the Louis Volks Humanitarian Award for his commitment to the empowerment of youth through sport and his outstanding dedication in regularly collecting and distributing food to the hungry.

He is the secretary of the Hout Bay Sport and Recreation Council, one of this project's partner organisations. In this role Gerry has been involved in organising football tournaments and school holiday programmes for the youth of Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu.

Presenting the award, Liz Huckle, Hout Bay Lions Club President said "through sport Gerry is fostering a sense of discipline, fair play and team spirit in the young and is helping to keep them healthy, happy and constructively occupied."

We congratulate Gerry on his award and thank him for his pledge towards the Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project.

Notwithstanding the condition of the local football pitch (wet and muddy), the Goodhope Local Football Association youth league will commence on Saturday 8 August.

Five Clubs have entered teams in each of the Under 9, Under 11 and Under 13 age group leagues.   The Clubs are Hangberg United from the Harbour area of Hout Bay, Cape Town United, Happy Boyz, African Brothers and Destroyers all of Imizamo Yethu, the partially informal settlement in Hout Bay.
 

Chris Moseadie of Goodhope LFA is the organiser.  Saturday mornings are devoted to youth sport through out
South Africa and games start as early at 8 am and must be completed by 1 pm after which senior football commences.

Results of the games taking place each Saturday in Hout Bay will be posted on this Blog.  We will also post team pictures from time to time.

 

Gerry Wood

Hout Bay Sport and Recreation Council

High up on the mountain side where Imizamo Yethu is situated the density of shack dwellings is so great that they have over spilled on to the main access road.  It is essential that the access road is cleared of shacks to allow emergency vehicles to reach the upper part of the informal settlement.  Imizamo Yethu has suffered a number of big fires in recent summers and the fear is that if the road is not kept clear that there might be a disaster if emergency vehicles cannot gain access to those dwellings on the higher parts of the mountain.

The solution has been to free up land near the main road and to provide new shacks for the residents displaced from the upper road.  This has seen the play area near the cemetery being requisitioned for new shacks removing one of the few areas where local children can safely play soccer and other games. This area consisted of facilities such a swings and an area the size of a five a side football pitch where the local children could play soccer.

Whilst safety and housing are priorities for the community of Imizamo Yethu, the settlement still needs places for children to play and for local community sport.  The decision to build shacks on land used mainly for sport and play is disappointing when one considers the lack of play and sports facilities available for the community,

The problems that young people living in Imizamo Yethu have in accessing sports facilities was highlighted in the local newspaper the Sentinel this week (31 July 2009).  The paper ran a story on the start of the third academic term for Hout Bay Secondary School whose catchment area includes the informal settlement.

Interviewed in the Sentinel, headteacher, Juan Julius, explained that there was a spirit of optimism in the school which in part was due to their sporting achievements, particularly the under-16 and under-19 soccer teams.

Both teams are leading their divisions in the district competition and were unbeaten in the second term despite playing better resourced schools. All of Hout Bay Secondary Schools home matches had to be played several miles away in Wynberg due to the lack of facilities in Hout Bay.

Transport is proving a major headache for Mr Julius with the school's transport budget for the year used up before the final third term.  The pupils, many of whom come from the informal settlement, are having to contribute £10.00 a month to subsidise the cost of transport from Hout Bay to Wynberg.

Whilst £10.00 a month might seem a modest amount to pay for school sport in the UK, in the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu £10,00 would constitute a full day's earnings for most people on a good day.

The Imizamo Yethu Sports Field Project has created an online presence to support the promotion of the project and facilitate the raising of funds.  The project has established a website, blog, Facebook group and a page on the charity fund raising site JustGiving.

The project aims to raise £300,000 through the charity International Development through Sport (Charity Registration No 1001564) to provide a 3G synthetic sports field and supporting youth sport and development programme in the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu.

Imizamo Yethu is situated in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa and has limited and poor facilities for sports participation especially for young people.  This project aims to improve the lives of young people from Imizamo Yethu by giving them the opportunity to take part in sports activity linked to life skills training.

The project will use email and social media to recruit and support 100,000 individuals in the UK who will each be asked to commit to raising £300 each.  Funds raised will be collected through JustGiving the online charity fundraising website.