(Detailausgabe) - Church Development Service - An Association of the Protestant Churches in Germany (EED)

Kicking for Peace in Cape Town

(22.12.2006) On Saturday 9 December the 1st Kicking for Peace Tournament of the Sport for Peace Project took place in Langa, the oldest township in Cape Town. The Sport for Peace Project is one of the initiatives of the Western Cape Network for Community, Peace and Development, a network with 23 organizations all working in the field of youth development, women, conflict transformation and peace building. Marion Keim and Marius Blümel, two EED-seconded professionals working with South-African partner organisations, participated in the event.

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The idea of the Kicking for Peace Initiative is, to offer children soccer training in their communities, where often no extra-mural activities or recreational programmes are taking place. Furthermore the initiatives aims to train youth to become soccer coaches and to take over the training for the children. A further focus of this initiative is to use soccer as a vehicle to bring different communities together and thus to nation-building. We therefore would like expose the participants to various communities where the member organisations of the network are based, by having tournaments in those communities. But it is not all about soccer, we envisage the use the soccer training and the tournaments to teach life skills as well as health and well being.

Since the beginning of October around 300 children between the ages of 9 – 14 are practicing in Mfuleni, Gugulethu, Langa and Lavender Hill once a week, to be prepared for the first Kicking for Peace Tournament.

The network members are very excited that they could host their first tournament, which brought together boys and girls ( 9-14 years) from various communities to enjoy a day of multicultural sporting activities in the spirit of community peace and development.

The soccer gear as well as the equipment consisting of balls and goal posts was sponsored by the German Consulate who also donated the trophies. The trophies will be rotating cups for the Kicking for Peace Initiative.

Out of the four girls and five boys teams the winners of the boys’ tournament was the Gugulethu Team of Women for Peace and for the girls the team of the Ark in Mfuleni. The organizers were impressed with the talent that was displayed on the field. Mr. Marius Blümel and his coaches and helpers did an outstanding job in terms of the coordination on and off the field.

The event was joyful, peaceful and full of fun and social interaction. The children and the adults had a wonderful time. The Organising Team of the Network would like to thank everybody who made this event a success.

This event was made possible with the cooperation of all the network members of the Western Cape Network for Community Peace and Development and the with the very much appreciated support of the City of Cape Town’s Department for Social Development and the German Consulate.

The organisers recognize the value of providing opportunities for children of various cultural and community background to come together and interact in a healthy recreational atmosphere.

We are hoping the joint life skills courses can start in 2007 for all the children. We are planning to offer the soccer event during every school holiday and hope the participation will grow and the Initiative “Kicking for Peace” will assist in the social transformation and peaceful development of our communities and the same time spread the joy and enthusiasms of soccer between now and 2010 to all communities in the Western Cape.

Compiled by Dr. Marion Keim Lees, Co-coordinator of the Western Cape Network for Community, Peace and Development

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Kicking for Peace in Cape Town