goals4kids launch in Cape Town

On 19 July 2010, when the Football World Cup had been finished, we held a press conference on the launch of our South Africa initiative in Cape Town. In the press room of Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust which is our local partner organization, goals4kids was presented to the South African press. Not just the Prime Minister of the Western Cape and patron of goals4kids, Helen Zille and the Managing Director of Impumelelo, Rhoda Kadalie but also the Chairman and Director of goals4kids, Hans Ulrich Gruber and Tomas Kanovsky who travelled to Cape Town for the project’s launch answered questions asked by the press.

Thanks to a great World Cup, there are 16 kids from Atlantis/Witsand who can now look forward to an education and training bursary. Atlantis/Witsand is about 70 kilometers away from Cape Town and with an unemployment rate of 70 % is one of the most affected townships of the Western Cape region. „Aids is the number one subject. Drugs, alcohol and violence follow“, Tomas Kanovsky, the association’s Director describes the situation in the townships. „Only with education, these serious problems can be solved and the country be brought forward“, says Tomas Kanovsky.

Also Helen Zille emphasized how much she is excited about the commitment of goals4kids: “This initiative will without a doubt not just make a huge contribution to children from disadvantaged communities but will also push the government’s objectives, namely: extending quality education to all the young people of the Western Cape”. We also had the great honor of taking part in a private reception held by Hellen Zille at her seat of government Leeuwenhof on the occasion of the launch of goals4kids where also representatives from politics, economy and other social organizations were present.

After having visited some townships and their schools, Tomas Kanovsky was deeply moved by the country’s contrasts: „At the end of the world, you enter two worlds: on the one hand there’s wealth, most beautiful landscapes, wonderful beaches and great architecture and on the other hand there is bitter poverty just a few kilometers away. Therefore, it is a matter of the heart for us to give kids and adolescents from the townships a perspective.“ We want to support the kids not only academically but also through music and sports. And talking about sports, we already have the first big project in process. In addition to the 16 education and training bursaries, goals4kids will have 16 new sets of goal posts installed in schools or in other places.

We would like to thank all participants for their contribution to goals4kids and are happy about the successful start of our initiative in South Africa!