Soccer Action at Yabonga

24.05.10

It is very hard to resist the soccer fever that is infecting everyone in this City – in this country. Only a few weeks to go to the kick off and the Yabonga kids and youth certainly can’t wait. For the whole year soccer tournaments were organised between the six Yabonga Youth Centres as well as for the younger children of the Orphan’s and Vulnerable Children’s programme. No matter how hold, if boy or girl or HIV positive or not - ALL Yabonga children are soccer crazy and play as often as they get a chance. Tournaments take place on school pitches, beautiful greens of organisations in the area or simply on any open space that the township offers. Yabonga was able to buy a few soccer balls that could be used for these occasions, but they were certainly not enough.

Then late in 2009 we were fortunate enough to receive an unexpected donation which allowed us to make an impulsive purchase of soccer equipment for the Youth. We were able to buy additional balls but also and soccer jerseys in four different colours! The kits came with shorts and socks and the jerseys even have numbers on the back and the Yabonga Logo on the front!

However, as the number of participants in both programmes is still increasing we just bought another 22 balls a few weeks ago… and soccer kits for more teams are urgently needed! We are in the process of opening two more youth centres, one in Khayelitsha (Kuyasa) and one in Gugulethu (Vuyani), which will bring the total number to 8 centres. We are hoping to have a youth programme running at each of our 12 Support centres by June 2011! These new teams will have to have a team colour…

But at the moment the participating teams are happy with swapping the shirts after a game so the next team can wear the Yabonga jerseys with pride – the pros like to swap their shirts after the match as well.