YDF in South Africa: Counting on mass participation and school sport
There is hardly another country in the world, where social
inequalities are as big as they are in South Africa. Disparities could
hardly be more visible than in Johannesburg where affluent Sandton - a
match for the luxury of the great metropolises of the world - stands
side by side with Alexandra. In the informal part of this township,
around 4,000 inhabitants who live in shacks made mostly of corrugated
iron and papier-méché, share eight porta-loos and one tap. Most of the
inhabitants cannot say in the evening by what means they will live the
following day. Some 20 percent of the population in South Africa lives
below the national poverty line and nearly 50 percent of the youth is
unemployed. Many of them are struggling with the integration into
serious employment. They often feel not valued by society and are at
high risk to be attracted by any kind of crime. One of the causes of
poverty and unemployment, and arguably one of the most serious social
legacies of Apartheid is the poor education and training of large
sectors of the black population. This reality is still impacting
negatively 17 years after the first democratic elections. Furthermore,
the adolescent birth rate is high as is the HIV prevalence. And it is
mostly children and youth who suffer the consequences and are confronted
with massive social problems. They often grow up lacking real
alternatives in life and without positive role models, need support and a
perspective on life.
YDF's cooperation with South Africa
YDF is currently active in nine South African provinces, implementing YDF activities with
partners in all nine provinces.
Positive role models and a perspective on life
This is what the Youth Development through Football (YDF) project
intended to offer, when it kicked off by implementing its programme in
the Gauteng Province in 2007, step by step developing South Africa into a
hub for its other African partner countries. As schools are in the
centre of the complex reality of socially disadvantaged youths of all
skin colours the 'Mamelodi 8 School League' was an excellent starting
point. YDF launched the league in cooperation with the Gauteng North
Sports Council (GNSC) in partnership with the non-governmental
organisation Altus Sports and eight primary schools from Mamelodi in
Tshwane. The project started in October 2007 when school sport educators
from eight primary schools in Mamelodi East met for a first planning
workshop which was organised by YDF and hosted at the Mahlasedi Masana
Primary School. The league aimed to create area-wide street football
opportunities but the project has ever since been far more than a
football league. It combines football with life skills, and promotes the
idea of fair play, solidarity and gender equality, distributing points
not only for goals, but also for social behaviour.
Expanding the YDF programme to a national level
What started off small in Gauteng Province as a close cooperation
with NGO partners Altus Sport, Greenfeet and Karos & Kambro has
grown into a national programme in just over three years. Today YDF is
implemented in all nine South African Provinces. Current partners were
selected following an open call for proposal. The approaches in the
provinces differ according to the local needs. While the focus is still
on school sport and toolkit implementation in Gauteng, YDF embarked on a
public private partnership with Volkswagen South Africa in the Eastern
Cape. Two 'soccer busses' are touring the province, bringing coaches and
equipment to remote rural areas in order to implement the HIV
prevention programme using youth development through football approach.
In the Western Cape, where quite a number of substantial
non-governmental organisations and institutions tried to tackle the
problems that the province is facing, YDF initially focused on
networking, following a bottom-up approach and only started implementing
in a second step. Independent of the individual procedure in a province
YDF always involves the responsible political level, thereby
guaranteeing the sustainability of the project.
Coaches as messengers of the YDF approach
YDF owes the speedy implementation process to the commitment of the
South African Department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA). To date, the
project has become part and parcel of SRSA's mass-participation
programme. Sports coordinators, who are responsible for the
implementation of the YDF project in situ, have been appointed in all
provinces. Coach instructors and coaches from all provinces have been
trained on the use of the YDF-Toolkit, serving as important
disseminators of information and as messengers for the approach of
education through sports. The cooperation with the sports coordinators,
schools and governmental and non-governmental organisations facilitated
the entrenchment of mass sport not only in the outskirts of the cities,
but in the country's outlying areas too.
Sport as a point of encounter
Ever since the project started in South Africa, YDF has used events
to convey the approach of youth development through sport and sport as a
point of encounter. Sport is a powerful agent of integration as youth
from different cultures and backgrounds meet on the pitch. However, only
few sporting events are actively used as places of encounter. More
often, teams meet to play a match and leave soon afterwards without
active exchange. YDF therefore, offers an event tool for coaches and
administrators that exceeds beyond the organisation of competitive
tournaments. The event tool has an emphasis on the management of social
events in order to promote active interaction of people from different
backgrounds.
Improvement through monitoring and evaluation
YDF's progress is continuously monitored and evaluated by the
University of Johannesburg.YDF also regularly invites partners from all
project levels to attend feedback sessions using the outcome to
continuously adjust and improve the programme according to the needs of
the people on the ground.