The National Youth Development Agency in partnership with the South African Football Association and the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) are set to embark on a four week Youth Mobilisation campaign as part of a 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup Legacy programme.
This follows an observation that though South Africa will be hosting the biggest soccer showpiece in the world, there is still limited youth participation in this once in a lifetime historical event.
The SAFA and NYDA acknowledge youth development as a common interest shared between them.
"The NYDA's mandate of youth development finds resonance with SAFA's strategic focus on football development which targets young people, as such we saw fit that we immediately activate this campaign to involve young people in activities looking at immediate, short as well as long term development goals. We welcome NYDA's initiative to encourage young South Africans to rally behind our senior men's national team, Bafana Bafana," says SAFA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Leslie Sedibe.
NYDA CEO Steven Ngubeni says the usual jovial vibe and buzz that young South Africans usually bring to large scale events such as the world cup is sadly missing.
"Anecdotal evidence points to the fact that young people from rural areas feel completely left out of the excitement of events associated with the world cup preparations," he adds.
The immediate focus of the 2010 FIFA World Cup legacy programme will be the mass community mobilisation on the world cup, aimed at mobilising the millions of South African citizens to support Bafana Bafana in their numbers as they take on the world's best football teams during the 2010 FIFA World Cup which kicks off on 11 June until 11 July.
Other aspects of the programme will be the promotion of volunteerism in football in the medium term, with skills development and promotion of women in football as long term objectives.
The campaign set to get underway this coming Saturday will engage 27 000 young volunteers on a door to door awareness raising and education campaign on the 2010 FIFA World Cup and use it as a vehicle to contribute to national social cohesion.
Throughout the campaign volunteers will distribute the South African flags and flyers with information on the national anthem and other national symbols to show our pride as a nation.
To be rolled-out under the theme: "Ek sê Mzansi, asibasabi, we are ready," the campaign will go to all the nine provinces starting with the Eastern and Western Cape provinces on 8 May ending with Gauteng and Limpopo on 4 June 2010.
The campaign will include mini soccer tournaments and coaching clinics to be undertaken in various towns and cities with the assistance of retired and current soccer players. The campaign is targeted to reach at least 3.24 million South African citizens.
Issued by: National Youth Development Agency
7 May 2010
Source: National Youth Development Agency (http://www.nyda.gov.za/)
