Dear Friends and Supporters,

An exciting year is well under way as 2011 quickly approaches the halfway point. Our daily educational football activities have successfully kicked-off and the first five months of the year have boasted several exciting “education through football” events. The number of enthusiastic children and youth continues to grow every day and has allowed us to pilot our 8th Fair Play Football League. This year EduFootball has placed particular importance on focusing on our female participants as well as the new age group, the Under 12s. In cooperation with our 45 partner organisations AMANDLA EduFootball has so far implemented more than 400 Life-Skills sessions this year, making an important contribution in the development of more than 2500 children.

Young footballers from Khayelitsha Township set off to Germany

As already featured in our last Newsletter, 2011 marks an exciting event for a group of EduFootball’s participants. On invitation of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the winning team of the 2010 PASCH tournament will set off on a trip to Germany in June and July 2011. The PASCH Festival in Berlin will bring together the winning teams from the six regional PASCH tournaments, which took place in South Africa, India, Cameroon, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Brazil. Similar to the qualification tournaments, the two-week trip is dedicated to intercultural exchange, historical exploration and educational football activities and offers the participants a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet peers from all around the globe. If you would like to follow the group through Germany and learn more about their experiences abroad, then please check out our blog on www.edufootball.org starting from 21 June.

Girl power: Dream team accompanies South African delegation to Germany

AMANDLA EduFootball’s female dream team, Noluvuyo ‘Nkazi’ Dudumashe and Annika Beste, will accompany the group of girls and boys on their Germany trip. Noluvuyo, which means ‘Happiness’ in the local language Xhosa, totally lives up to the meaning of her name, always having an open ear and friendly smile whenever needed. As the heart and soul of the Chris Campbell Memorial Field, it does not come by surprise that it was her who led the winning team of the PASCH tournament to their victory. Annika, German by birth, chose South Africa as her favourite living destina tions a few years ago. Her German skills will complement the team on their journey, when she makes sure no one gets lost in Berlin or Stuttgart. Over the last few months Nkazi and Annika worked hand in han d to organise all necessary formalities, such as passports, permission forms and visas for the participants.  

Crime Prevention - 24 Hours of Football, Fun and Education

One of the biggest highlights of the year so far was the annual 24 Hour Crime Prevention Football tournament, which was yet again an enormous success for all parties involved. Over 1500 enthusiastic boys, girls and young men participated in a series of tournaments during the course of the 24 hours. With countless games to be played, the participants were thankful for the hundreds of supportive spectators to cheer them through the day and night, as well as the boisterous sound truck that encouraged a little 24 hour dancing competition on the side. The event also proved to be very popular with local politicians, such as the Minister of Community Safety, Mr. Albert Fritz and the Executive Mayor, Mr. Dan Plato, media representatives and various stakeholders from the sport for development sector. Visits and speeches from various high-profile individuals greatly contributed to raising awareness about the importance of crime prevention initiatives as well as helping to promote the mission and vision of AMANDLA EduFootball.

Release of Annual Report 2010

We are happy to announce that our Annual Report for 2010 has been released. It can be downloaded on www.edufootball.org and summarises all our activities, achievements and developments in 2010. At this point we would like to thank all of our partners, supporters, sponsors and last but not least you for your invaluable support that has made all the above possible. Thank you very much!  

We hope for your continued support and interest in our educational work.

Your AMANDLA EduFootball Team

According to Statistics SA, of all approximately 10 million young people between the ages 10 to 19 living in the Republic of South Africa over 20% have lost at least one parent. This statistic does not consider the additional numbers of young people that have to be removed from their families due to domestic violence, drug abuse, and/or sexual harassment/assault.

Hence AMANDLA EduFootball strives to equip young people with life-skills and knowledge to deal with difficult social circumstances, increase their career opportunities and provide a platform of dialogue through the medium of football.