Keeping our children out of court through sport
"I am proud of the progress we have made, open velds with long grass used to be hideouts for criminals, but now the fields only bring positivity," Tholie Madondo.
According to Tholi Madondo, every child growing up in the informal settlements of Kliptown wakes up every day to a slew of challenges and dangers. The Kliptown area is infamous for its poverty, lack of electricity, lack of infrastructure and rampant crime and unemployment.
Tholie Madondo, is the founder of Talent Tracker South Africa (TTSA), which is a sports community development programme based in Kliptown. He said that the lack of sports facilities and activities has left the children without hope and nothing to look forward to.
He said, “This is when I thought of making a difference in my community. I wanted to give the children living here a sense of hope and something positive to look forward to.”
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Talent Tracker SA was started in 2011 with the aim of keeping the children off the streets and providing daily activities for them to take part in. Madondo said that after the deaths of two children in the community he decided to locate open spaces and clean them up.
“One the children who died was hit by a car on his way to soccer practice outside the community, the other drowned in the Kliptown River. This infuriated me because I knew part of the reason why that child went swimming in the river was that there was nothing else he could do to keep busy,” said Modondo.
TTSA has since started a campaign to clean up open spaces and creating sports fields so children won’t have to travel far distances to have access to these type of facilities. The organisation also started a swimming programme which takes children to the swimming pools in Eldorado Park.
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“Visiting the pools in Eldos were never easy because our children had to face being bullied. At the pools, our children would be called the ‘K’ word and told that they were dirtying the water. This is why children as young as 11 years old still risk their lives swimming in the Kliptown River,” said Madondo.
Ever since the open velds have been cleaned and are being maintained, children make use of the spaces by playing soccer and netball on a daily basis. Soccer training takes place every Tuesday to Thursday and soccer games are played on a Saturday.
“The soccer games over the weekends are everyone’s favourite. Parents have the opportunity to watch their children flex their soccer muscle,” said Mabondo.
“I am proud of the progress we have made, open velds with long grass used to be hideouts for criminals, but now the fields only bring positivity,” he added.
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