SA's Sport for Good champions
13 November 2008
Double Olympic gold medalist Daley Thompson will be in the country as a guest of Laureus South Africa this month, at an event to salute the work of 47 coaches from 11 local community projects supported by the international Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.
"Laureus would be nothing without the work of the leaders and coaches from the projects around the world which we support," the British decathlon legend said in a statement. "I am really looking forward to being in Pretoria to congratulate these unsung heroes who do so much to help improve the lives of so many children in South Africa."
Thompson will be the guest of honour at Laureus South Africa's annual Role Models Retreat, starting in Pretoria on 24 November. The three-day event provides a platform for Laureus projects to network and share best practices.
Two new projects
A highlight of this year's event will be the launch of two new projects supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation:
- The Indigo Skateboarding Movement, situated in The Valley of Thousand Hills, near Durban, provides skateboarding for young people while improving their life skills and spoken English skills and teaching them about tourism.
- The Makomba-Ndlela Youth Movement in Limpopo province offers counseling during sessions of sport and the performing arts to combat serious social and health issues such as sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy, HIV/Aids, crime and substance abuse.
The 11 South African programmes already supported by Laureus Sport for Good Foundation are:
- Buffalo City Soccer School
- Fight With Insight
- Alexandra Football Academy
- Free The Youth
- Little Champs
- PeacePlayers International
- Sport for All
- Future Champs
- Soweto Schools Rugby Project
- Indigo
- Makomba-Ndlela Youth Development
Rugby legend Morné du Plessis, chairman of Laureus South Africa, thanked sponsors Mercedes-Benz South Africa and Discovery for making the event possible.
Mercedes-Benz SA executive director Lulu Letlape said a strength of the Laureus Foundation was that it helped communities "who are ready to help themselves. They do not prescribe to communities what social issues they should address – the communities identify the issues themselves."
Also present in Pretoria will be members of the Laureus Friends and Ambassadors programme, including mountaineer Deshun Deysel, boxing great "Baby Jake" Matlala, and soccer great John Moeti.
The power to inspire
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation addresses social challenges through a worldwide programme of sports-related community development initiatives. To date, Laureus has raised over €15-million for projects which have helped improve the lives of over 750 000 young people.
Donations to Laureus can be made via the Easigiving website. Quote ref: NPO No. IT2573/2002. For general inquiries, contact (011) 788 0046.
At the inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards in 2000, Laureus patron Nelson Mandela said: "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does."
The members of the Laureus World Sports Academy (South Africans in bold) are:
Giacomo Agostini, Marcus Allen, Severiano Ballesteros, Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Ian Botham, Sergey Bubka, Bobby Charlton, Sebastian Coe, Nadia Comaneci, Yaping Deng, Marcel Desailly, Kapil Dev, David Douillet, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sean Fitzpatrick, Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Mika Häkkinen, Tony Hawk, Mike Horn, Miguel Indurain, Michael Johnson, Kip Keino, Franz Klammer, Dan Marino, John McEnroe, Edwin Moses (chairman), Nawal El Moutawakel, Robby Naish, Ilie Nastase, Martina Navratilova, Alexei Nemov, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Morné du Plessis, Hugo Porta, Vivian Richards, Monica Seles, Mark Spitz, Daley Thompson, Alberto Tomba, Steve Waugh and Katarina Witt.
SAinfo reporter
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