A group of San boys from a remote area deep in Namibia and a club from Cape Town’s Khayelitsha participated in an international soccer tournament in Johannesburg on 14 – 15 May as part of an ongoing Kicking AIDS Out! programme in disadvantaged communities supported by Norway and organised by Cape Town-based SCORE (Sports Coaches’ OutReach).
130 boys from Namibia, Zambia and South Africa participated in the sports and cultural event at the SAFA Transnet Soccer School of Excellence near Johannesburg Airport after several months of local qualifying rounds which included some 500 rural boys and their communities, with the support of twenty young international volunteers.
The soccer tournament was timed to celebrate Norway’s Constitution Day on Tuesday 17 May and is a youth event in Norway’s 2005 programme in South Africa, a year-long calendar of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.
Kicking AIDS Out! is a growing international network of organisations which started in Africa, and now has members from Norway, Canada, the UK and the Caribbean. Kicking AIDS Out ! promotes sport as a tool for development and for awareness about HIV/AIDS to encourage peers to discuss issues that affect their lives and their communities. It’s also a unique concept that uses movement games as the vehicle to spread awareness messages.
SCORE is a South African non-profit, non-government, community development and volunteer organisation that uses sport as a powerful medium to bring about sustainable development and empowerment, and to build international and intercultural understanding and relationships
SCORE recruits and trains international volunteers, who are placed in mainly rural communities in South Africa, Namibia and Zambia where they live with host families while implementing SCORE’s programmes in community schools, sports clubs and councils. The programmes are designed to build capacity at the individual, organisational and community level to train coaches, trainers and leaders.
SCORE has a long relationship of cooperation with Norwegian sport, and has hosted Norwegian volunteer trainers and coaches for almost ten years. The Kicking AIDS Out! sport and life skills programme was first implemented in 2002 by SCORE with the support of Norway and the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF), and it has been running ever since.
"Our aim is to build better citizens and develop community role models. If they become sports stars that’s wonderful, but we are contributing to a better society, a more tolerant, peaceful and developed society without poverty and disease – and hopefully, one day, an AIDS-free society." said Stefan Howells, Executive Director of SCORE.
"But it’s not only about our communities here in Southern Africa, it’s also about the exchange experience of our Norwegian volunteers. This work gives them a better idea of what Africa is really all about, and it’s an incredibly powerful experience that often changes their lives and impacts positively on their communities back home."