Addressing social issues one punch at a time
Ujab Boxing Club has been welcoming the children of Zandspruit for boxing training since November 2016, tackling social development issues in the process.
There are currently close to 25 children practising boxing with Ujab every Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 4.15pm to 5.15pm.
Regardless of the conditions that they are forced to train in, the children are more than happy to train and put all of their energy into training.
When Michael and his collaborators initiated the project in November 2016, they had only two pairs of boxing gloves to train with.
However, a year and five months later, thanks solely to the generosity of sponsors, they now have seven pairs of gloves, two punching bags, 12 hand-wraps, and 12 skipping ropes.
While they might have considerably more resources at their disposal now than they had previously, they still require more if they are to provide each child with sufficient training.
Boxing is not the only item on Ujab’s menu however, as once a week they have a speaker visit the children to address social issues they might be facing.
In these talks, Siyabonga Mngomezulu encourages the children to refrain from resolving problems and conflict through violence.
“Siyabonga encourages the children to use their boxing skills only for self-defense, and to rather resolve conflict in a verbal, or more peaceful manner,” Michael explained.
The coaches also try to conduct house visits on a monthly basis, in an effort to check on the progress of the children they are training.
“If a child hasn’t been to training for two weeks, for instance, we visit their homes to check that everything is okay,” Michael said.
“It’s simply another way for us to make sure children don’t say they’re going to boxing training but then don’t. We are trying to instil a sense of responsibility in the children, and we encourage this by using a system of peer-coaching. So if Danny or Nkosi are running a little late, then some of the more developed or older children will begin training with the younger children while they wait for their coaches.”
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