Our humble beginning
A born and bred Zibambwean, in 2016 when he was 22 years old. He had the potential to be a great footballer, but he was an orphan with very limited resources and no opportunites.
He moved to South Africa in search of a better life, gained employment at a restaurant in Kalk Bay and still uses the income of his informal employment to help make the dreams of young, disadvantaged children, a reality.
Anyone who has spent time in informal settlements in South Africa, will know that there are very few opportunities offered to children to escape the pitfalls that these areas expose young people to, being gangsterism, crime, prostitution and drugs, amongst others. Many children get hooked into this sad cycle in their search for role-models, or in some cases, just something to eat.
Cavin started coaching soccer in Masiphumelele with just four children
It was challenging, and still is. Very few of the players get (limited) assistance from their parents and he is always looking for ways and means to get more support to ensure that he does not have to give up on them.
Sharing the passion
Life skills
What we do & our vision
The vision of the Academy is to identify, equip and empower young persons who have the talent for soccer, but still have not yet been recognised. It provides them with an opportunity and platform, to showcase their talent.
Our challenges
We are currently training without dedicated premises – sometimes on the beach, and we have a very old, rusty combi (a small Toyota mini-van) that we use to help transport our players to games. We usually need to do 4 – 6 trips in a day to get all our players to and from games. The parents of our players are not always able to help provide food or funds for transport and outfits, so we rely on the assistance of neighbouring communities to help us just cover the basics to help realise our dreams.
In short, our needs are
Affiliation and registration fees that is payable annually, training equipment like balls, cones, agility ladders, cones, goal posts. We do not have any medical or liability cover and also need to purchase a first aid kit & get some or our members trained in first aid. We need soccer kits for each child which also includes gloves, tracksuits, t-shirts and soccer boots.
More items required
We need training bags, coach whistles, a stop watch, trainers and rain jackets. If we can get a field again, there will be field rentals. We need money to for laundry, food and refreshments, transport and service and maintenance.
We would love to pay our coaches salaries, which we are not nearly close to yet.
The list goes on
It would be amazing to have a fund for a Christmas gift per player, prizegiving ceremonies, a 32 seater bus. Imagine having a bursary fund for players that finish school, or money to do tours or play games overseas. And to have funds for marketing, stationary, our website (gratefully sponsored for now), sending our coaches on more training, having a driver… aaah, the list goes on.
