Eight Cape Town communities will come alive on 21 April with the exciting launch of Sporting Chance Street Netball, a regional street netball programme that will reach 768 girls under the age of 13.
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Street Netball’s inaugural centre pass will take place simultaneously on Friday at 2pm across the Cape communities of Grassy Park, Elsies River, Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha, Langa, Mfuleni, Ocean View and Nomzamo and forms part of the City of Cape Town’s Countdown to the Netball World Cup. Regional finals are then planned for Youth Day, 16 June, and the festival finale will take place in the Fan Park next to the CTICC to coincide with the 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup (VNWC).
‘The street is the ideal venue for kids to come together and do something positive and healthy,’ says Brad Bing, managing director of Sporting Chance. ‘We need to take back the streets from social evils in our communities – programs like Street Netball turn the streets into a stage where life lessons can be taught, friendships forged and communities entertained.’
Bing goes on to explain that a very important aspect of the Street Netball initiative is the life skills programme that will run concurrently for eight weeks.
‘Emthonjeni Counselling and Training, one of our supporting partners, will be working with the girls across the eight Cape communities to equip them with essential life skills and empowerment knowledge to help them plan for their futures. Being healthy and keeping active are added critical life skills taught by the program and so necessary to keep building a healthy South Africa.’
Sixteen teams of six players each are entered into each community league to compete in an adapted 5-a-side version of the conventional game. Weekly matches will be played for eight weeks, followed by the regional finals on Friday 16 June, and culminating in the festival finale, which will coincide with the 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup (VNWC) as part of the exciting line-up of events planned around this international event.
‘The Cape Town hosted 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup should be more than a pleasant memory for South Africans,’ says Bing. ‘It should leave a lasting legacy of promise, showing all South Africans that dreams can come true, even for the most humble. This is the time to grab the excitement generated by a world sporting event being hosted on SA ground and carry it through to a grassroots level.’
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Picture: Supplied
