Giving back to the community that shapes them
ALEXANDRA - Malandela Mighty Heroes is not just a soccer club that is bent on building nifty footballers to excel on the playing field only.
Malandela Mighty Heroes is not just a soccer club that is bent on building nifty footballers to excel on the playing field, but it is also determined to produce well-rounded players who will not mesmerise the multitudes on the playing fields and have caring values steeped in their hearts.
“We want to give back to the community that gave birth to these football machines and continue to nurture and shape them for many productive football years ahead of them,” said U17 and senior team coach Vincent Ramofi, who took his team of teenagers from the various age divisions to Alexandra’s iconic old age home, Itlhokomeleng.
Ramofi took players from the U13, U17 and senior teams on the Itlhokomeleng project. Their U15 side could not make the trip as they were on a camp. He said the main idea of the project, which will involve other institutions as well within Alex, is to instil a sense of belonging in the players, so they understand they also belong to this community.
“I want them to know they are blessed to have the football talents they possess and we want to instil caring values in them so that they can learn to help those in need,” Ramofi said explaining that it was the first time they are taking the players to perform community work.
“We have planned these community activities to be ongoing projects where each month we shall pick a charity institution to move into for community work.” The idea of taking the boys for community work came from club manager Kabelo Dlamini, who sold the idea to everybody in the club and “we also bought into it and embraced it.”
“We have come here to clean up the surroundings of the home and help wherever needed. We are taking a leaf from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which encourages us to make every day a Nelson Mandela Day. This project that we will be doing, over and above other activities, we plan to do on Nelson Mandela Day,” said Ramofi.
The project is a partnership between Malandela Might Heroes and the Alex-based Youth Entrepreneur Leadership Foundation (YELF) of which Dlamini is a co-founder.
