goals4kids travels to Cape Town

It was the highlight of their trip to Cape Town: Hans Ulrich Gruber and Tomas Kanovsky of the goals4kids organisation handed over education and training bursaries to 16 children from four different high schools in the Atlantis Township, and opened the first two football goals donated by goals4kids with a football match, in the presence of the Western Cape’s Provincial Minister of Social Development Ivan Meyer.

The day before, goals4kids had met Bavaria’s Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape and patron of the goals4kids association, at the summit of their twinned regions. Together, they handed over their donation to the Social Development Fund in the shape of a set of football equipment.

About 50 children had been considered as beneficiaries of the education and training grants before 16 of them were eventually selected with the help of Impumelelo, goals4kids’ local partner organisation. Many local politicians, parents with their children, and the head masters of the four schools whose pupils had been chosen attended the ceremony at Robinvale High School in Atlantis.

The opening speech by Rhoda Kadelie, Impumelelo’s Executive Director, was followed by further short speeches by Ivan Meyer, goals4kids President Hans Ulrich Gruber, goals4kids Director Tomas Kanovsky and member of parliament Denise Robinson. The South African representatives praised goals4kids’ committed involvement highly. “Many organisations come and go. Goals4kids came back to keep its promise”, Meyer said.

Certificates of the education and training bursaries, which children will be entitled to up to the age of 18, were handed over their recipients in a festive ceremony. The grants will pay for school fees, school uniforms, school books, computers, internet access and the costs of joining a sports club or musical education. In the football match that followed the ceremony, teams from the Robinvale and Saxony schools played each other clad in the goals4kids and FC Bayern Munich team strips. On this special day, it was all about having fun. “It was very touching to see so many proud and happy faces”, Gruber commented after the game. “All the more motivation for us to keep up our commitment to helping disadvantaged children. And every donation helps us support more children.” Another lucky 15 schools will soon be able to sport new football goals donated by goals4kids. And when the women’s World Cup kicks off next year in Germany, further bursaries will be granted – this time to German children. The German football team will decide how many grants there will be with their score.