The Hope-4-Kids, a non-profit organisation from Gqeberha, supports the realisation of dreams and aspirations of young, underprivileged children at a netball tournament in the city.

As part of the tournament, the kids will also be able to rub shoulders with Netball royalty, such as Zanela Mdodana, assistant Protea coach and captain of EC Aloes, Noluthanto Maliehe, who are in attendance. The tournament also aims to bring back the love for sport amongst communities.

Hope-4-Kids empowering underprivileged children

A tournament to unearth talent that sometimes goes unnoticed. Poor facilities and a lack of resources are often barriers to success for these young players. Barriers a tournament like this hopes to break down.

The founder of Hope-4-Kids, Linda Msila, says the main purpose of the tournament is to bring the love of the sport back into the communities and try and keep the kids busy during weekends to combat crime and substance abuse.

“We want to bring the kids from the townships to come explore playing at other facilities because they’re in the townships we don’t have facilities. First of all, then he bring the kids to this venue and creating a dream team, a dream team that will take these kids and play against the model C schools of Port Elizabeth, and they’re hoping that by us going to those schools, these kids will get a chance to get opportunities.”

The 98-team tournament is made up mainly of players from the townships. Two players, Ntando Duma and Siyolise Beleni, couldn’t contain their excitement.

“I get her. I think it is a wonderful experience to play with other teams. I get to learn from my mistakes. I get to learn how to play a match. I get to watch people who are bigger than me, who can play proper. I would like to see our team win. I would like to see our team sponsors and kit,” Duma explains.

“Well, this tournament is very important to us because you can see we love netball. We are from the township. The playground we play at isn’t good for how we like to play netball in, so we have no choice but to be theirs, and it’s hard for us to get kids to take their equipment to the gym… But I’m very grateful for that. We made it because I’m very grateful,” Beleni says.

Kyla-Linke Seyffert from Pearson High School in Gqeberha joined the festivities, providing coaching, mentoring and scouting for future talent.

“I think it’s good because these umpires that know the rules that aren’t gonna and these team playing that do understand but also they’re gonna teach others and stuff you learn you’re never forget it’s here to grow the love, the sport to show that it’s actually fun, to show like it’s all teambold and everything, and we just go for the love of the sport like we are to grow and to help each other out. So even as we are to see how they play to improve our play as well to learn from them.”

The players also enjoyed the chance to catch a few tips from the best. Proteas Assistant Coach Zanele Mdodana was on hand.

“I think a tournament like this is going to unearth a lot of talent and it’s going to show us. You know, there is talent that needs to be nurtured. I think the work that Hope-4-Kids and Linda are doing here is to give our kids the opportunity to play the sport that they love. And also for people like me to be able to come around and see identify, you know, the talent that the Nelson Mandela has. It’s a step in the right direction, and I think, you know, we need to applaud her for the work that she’s doing.”

A cash prize awaits the winners, but even better is the chance to play against other schools from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.