Ajax Cape Town celebrate Nelson Mandela’s legacy

In remembrance of former South African president Nelson Mandela, Ajax Cape Town teamed up with Africa Unite on Nelson Mandela Day, Tuesday 18 July.

The club welcomed 44 kids from Gugulethu, Belhar and Delft offering coaching clinics, refreshments, interaction with the club’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) team and a memorable expereince as a whole, at our world class Ikamva home.

Following the conclusion of the football clinics, we spoke to Dorcas Kaseka and Alice Dolan from Africa Unite:

“Africa Unite is a youth empowerment organisation, we work with youth from different backgrounds – refugee and immigrants – we work together to prevent conflict, enhance social cohesion and promote social development,” said Kaseka.

“We have differnent types of programmes we offer at Africa unite…

Peer-educator Alice Dolan added: “We run a variety of programmes at Africa United, we have peer educators, we have school club’s that we are running with refugees called skill sharing, we do community conflict mediation.

“This is one of those programmes where we go into communities that were previously classified as underprivileged and we try and identify the problems, come up with solutions in conjunction with the community leaders to try and identify the issues and to see what we can do to bring a better view to all in the community, most especially the children.

“We want to create a safer environment for everybody, not forgetting that sport is a very important area that we promote because team work is best. Everything we do has to do with team work. If we are not going to work as a team stuff will fail. Today was just a big picture of what we represent.

Dolan continued: “It was more than enjoyment, I think some kids touched their dreams today. For a lot of them soccer is more important than school. A lot of them see it from the point of view: ‘we have to complete school, but we want to play soccer’

“Big thank you to Ajax Cape Town for opening your doors.

“To meet the players they see on TV was also a great experience for all the kids, thank you,” Kaseka concluded.

Ajax Cape Town prides itself on uplifting the community and we are honoured that have contributed 67 minutes of our time to the greater good.