Sport used to empower children’s education
We are bound to fail because this organisation is not owned by one of their own,”
A Zandspruit-based non-profit organisation is using children’s love of sport to try and improve their academics.
Football Without Borders, a community project facilitated by Michael Mapfunde and Eliah Dzwowa, runs an after-school programme for underprivileged children who train at various sporting clubs in the area.
The organisation is supported by an international programme called One World Education which is based in Bulgaria in Europe.
During the programme on 31 October, Michael told Northsider that they initiated the project after discovering that children were struggling with literacy and mathematics.
“We discovered that parents either came home from work too late to assist their children with homework and reading, or just couldn’t be of help because of their own academic limitations,” said Michael, who explained that the programme is aimed at bridging the gap by providing extracurricular activities to benefit the little ones.
Michael added that the programme targets children between the ages of nine and 12. “The reason why we target this age group is because it’s easy to impact and to add value to their lives,” he said.
While using sponsored books and soccer material to educate the children, the project also assists them with public speaking and building self-confidence through Eliah’s leadership.
Eliah highlighted their challenge, which is likely to disrupt their programme. “The parents in this community don’t seem to be buying into our philosophy.
We are bound to fail because this organisation is not owned by one of their own,” he lamented.
He added that he encourages the community to support the cause as the programme is beneficial to the children and offered without any payment requests.
The programme is conducted in a half-built shack without proper furniture.
Eliah appealed to the leaders of Zandspruit to sponsor a piece of land for other activities in the pipeline and also asked local businesses to sponsor study material to keep the programme up and running.
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