The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in South Africa hosted an interactive three day community driven roadshow at the Waves for Change sites in the Eastern Cape from 12 to 14 July 2017.
The action packed roadshow was hosted during the World Surf League Championship Tour and highlights included the announcement of Corné Krige as a Laureus ambassador, a new partnership with Qhubeka and the showcasing of the Laureus funded Waves for Change projects in both East London and Wells Estate, Port Elizabeth.
40 young kids from across the Eastern Cape were given a unique opportunity to meet some of the world best surfers and were taken on three day road trip starting off in East London and ending off in Jeffrey’s Bay at the Corona Open JBay, which is the 6th stop on the World Surfing Leagues’ Championship Tour, and marks half way of the professional tour surfers’ yearlong campaign.
Among the attendees included newly appointed ambassador Corné Krige, fellow ambassador Ryk Neethling as well as Laureus SA Chairman Morné du Plessis who participated in various interactive lifestyle sessions with kids over the three days.
The aim of the roadshow was to showcase the Waves for Change project as well as host a handover event, which saw 12 coaches from the Waves For Change and Buffalo City Sports Academy programmes in East London receiving Qhubeka bicycles to deliver a transport solution, with the aim to ultimately have coaches from all Laureus projects across the country on bicycles. For many of the coaches at these community programmes, transportation has historically been an issue due to limited resources and this is a small step to provide the coaches with the tools to achieve their goals in the respected community projects.
Waves for Change is based in ocean-side communities experiencing high levels of community violence and that lack of resources to meet the developmental needs of children and young adults who present with behaviour or learning problems. At present Waves for Change runs three sites in Cape Town, a site in East London and another in Port Elizabeth. The project has been doing amazing work and was recently awarded the international Sport for Good Award at the 2017 Laureus World Sport Awards in Monaco earlier this year.
Chairperson of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation SA, Morné du Plessis, said: “What an amazing week! We managed to pull off a unique and memorable experience for the kids from our Eastern Cape funded projects, welcomed Corné Krige to the Laureus family and officially launched our partnership with Qhubeka. We also further cemented our relationship with Mercedes-Benz SA who have played a significant role co-funding various Laureus projects, including the Waves for Changes sites in East London and Port Elizabeth. It was an amazing experience for all and we hope that we are able to showcase more of the amazing projects that we work with in the future, they are the real heroes, who are actively making a positive impact in communities across SA using sport as a catalyst for change.”
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation funds, supports and promotes the use of sport as a tool for social change. The Foundation has a network of over 140 sport for social change organisations using sport in innovative ways to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges facing youth. Since its inception, Laureus has raised over €100 million for projects which have helped to improve the lives of millions of young people.
Alan Straton
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