Youth Day celebrated with Kaos
Kaos held its fourth annual Youth Day celebration at Weltevreden Park Primary School on Saturday, 16 June.
For Jacob Boikanyo and his colleagues at the Kids Academy of Sports (Kaos), the need to aid the youth is an ever-present one for which Youth Day provides the perfect platform.
South Africa will arguably never forget the tragedy and horror that befell Soweto 42 years ago and has led to the annual celebration of Youth Day in honour of the black schoolchildren who lost their lives that day.
Many a member of South Africa’s modern youth sees the holiday as just a day of celebration and an opportunity for them to perhaps go out with friends and celebrate. However, Jacob feels that they have lost track of what Youth Day really stands for.
“Youth Day is not meant to be a day when you go out and party, it’s meant to be a day when we celebrate the youth in a way that promises to develop our country’s future,” Jacob said.
For this reason, the organisation began its Youth Day project aimed at underprivileged children under the age of 13 four years ago, with a handful of soccer teams involved in the day. This year, they had 100s of soccer- and netball-playing children taking part. It was the first year that netball had been introduced at the event, and according to Kernley Smith, it was something they just had to do.
“We’ve had soccer at our project since Day 1, but it’s just not right for us to limit the opportunities we grant to soccer teams only,” he explained.
The inaugural netball tournament at their Youth Day celebration was a hit, with a number of teams taking part in the tournament which Mighty Blues won at the end of the day.
In between the conclusion of the netball tournament and the playoff rounds on the soccer side, the children were treated to lunch packs, live entertainment and dancing from young upcoming acts.
Things got a little intense on the soccer field during the fourth edition of the Youth Day event. With games starting early, and the final coming at about 3pm, the players from Spanish and Boys United certainly worked hard to ensure their spots in the final after they both clinched slender 1–0 victories in the semifinals.
The two teams were inseparable at the end of normal time in the final, and had to resort to penalties to determine the victor. Boys United managed to keep their nerve and emerged victorious by 4–2 after the penalty shootout.
The successful day was concluded with a short prize-giving where Siseko Ntondini, half of the team that inspired the 2017 movie, Beyond the River, gave a moving speech in which he encouraged the youth to “Never give up on what you love and want to do, even when people say you can’t.”
The top teams in each sporting code were rewarded for their efforts with new kit and training equipment they might not have necessarily been able to afford otherwise. Finally, the children were handed goodie bags filled with essential hygiene and healthcare items as they made their way home.
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