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Hluvukani
is a rural village situated at the foothills of the Drakensburg
Mountain range in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa and is
affected like so many other rural areas by unemployment, poverty
and HIV/Aids. Harry and Smiling started encouraging young boys
to play soccer as a means of keeping them motivated and out of
mischief. Now they not only help the boys with their soccer
skills they have made incredible progress in establishing a
vegetable garden that will assist the community by providing
additional food resources and social support.
In
February 2008, Sheila Webster spent her holiday sewing bibs for
the team from fabric purchased by the Transboundary Elephant
Research programme. A total of 48 bibs were distributed to the
team in April 2008. The boys are now able to practice defence
tactics for different positions and this is helping to up their
game for competitions.
In
September some of the funds donated to the project were used to
purchase fifteen new leather soccer balls and forty training
cones. Harry handed these out to a crowd of enthusiastic
children when he went home on leave. All of the sports equipment
purchased or donated is being kept at Harry’s house under the
watchful eye of his wife Flossy and is handed out before
practice sessions whenever time is available.
Since the
new balls and training cones now form part of the regular
practice sessions, Harry has implemented a number of training
exercises he learnt on a Tanda Tula soccer workshop.
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