Blitz-meeting with coaches

Today Blitz had a meeting with coaches that are going to take part in our second annual Soweto Football Festival. The meeting was conducted by Wire, Penny and Thabiso Mifi.
14 coaches attended. During the meeting they (coaches) were told and given rules pamphlets so that they know what is expected from them. e.g -all the juniors must have proof for their age.
Questions were asked by the coaches and they were answered by the Organizing commity. The commity lead by Wire with the help of Penny and Thabiso Mifi.

Grunden Boys from Soweto

My name is Eunice Ratsoma.
I volunteer (teacher) at Thuto ke lebone disabled center and it´s been ten years now working with the disabled.
I love this people and I mean real love. I feel happy and fulfilled.
Blitz makes a difference to this kids because they always feel happy when they are with Wire and the crew.
This means a lot for us and ever since we met the Blitz leaders there is a lot of games been played by us (students).

Soweto Football Festival this weekend

Blitz Academy are coming closer and closer to Soweto Football Festival, that will take place in the end of this week. There will be more meetings with the staff before it starts.
In this meeting Phillimon, Floyd, Tumi, Stapia, Gopolang, Wire, Tshepo, Mpho and Thabiso were present.
The members gave report of teams that they invited for the SFF and we are sitting at 20 teams and counting.

Strike has effected Blitz

After the succesfull World Cup other things have happened in South Africa.
There has been a strike that has made it impossible for Blitz Academy to run the school program for a while since schools in Soweto have been closed.
Mostly workers that works for the government (teachers, hospitals nurses) strikes for better pay and housing allowances. They need 8 percent for the salary increase and R1000 for housing subsidy.
During the strike kids were told not to go to schools and patients had to turn back home with less medication. That is when soldiers where posted to hospitals and clinics to attend the emergencies.
Few teachers did try to help students by forming study groups where they will revise their syllabus and continue with what is left in their studies.
The matric student had suffered more because they were supposed to write their preliminary examination to prepare for the year ending finals.
Due to the strike the government says there will be no September holidays for students so that they can recover with their studies.
The strike was suspended for 21 days and if the government don't meet the workers demands they will go further with strike again.
Wire

Small Gothia Cup in Soweto

In 2004, after participating in the program Kick Off with IF Väster, we had the opportunity to participate in the Gothia Cup, the biggest youth tournament in the world.
This tournament inspired us to have a flagship project at Blitz Academy with the same focuse.
In 2009 we hosted the first such tournament at a small scale and we called it Soweto Football Festival (SFF).
The first tournament had 36 team registering and we used 5 sport field and had 3 days to host the tournament.
We are going to send invitations to teams for the 2nd annual SFF and we will be using the 5 football fields in Soweto around Moletsane. The teams that will participate will be 8 per division and we are planning to have 5 divisions.
We will be playing for 3 days on the 24 to the 26 of September most of the teams are the ones that participated in our first SFF.
We are confident that we will have a successful event.
Tomorrow, on Friday 3rd September, we are meeting the leaders to brief and give tasks for preparation of SFF.

”Blitz makes a difference”

My name is Itumeleng Kau and I live in Naledi ext 2 (Rdp). I live with my Mom, brother and my two daughters.
I think Blitz is a good thing for the kids because it keeps kids away from drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy ,crime and other challenges that youth face.
Since I'm a parent my self and have grown up in Soweto , I have a clear picture of how the youth of my community live, so Blitz makes a difference by teaching them different sports and also the responsibility towards their health.

What motivated me to be part of Blitz is that I want to make a difference in my community. Been part of the Blitz family exposed me to other things like sport and women empowerment. Working the mental challenged people is fun yet sometimes challenging and you can also be attached to them.
I love what we do at Blitz even thou I would not be there all the time. When ever I'm free I will dedicate my time there (Blitz).

Cold winter in Soweto

Winter is still on and this week we have -1 and -4.
But that does not keep the kids away from the school holiday program that we (Blitz) do with the Hub (Gauteng provincial government) in partnership.
We had +/- 40 kids from around Moletsane where our office is based. Due to this cold we don't have a stable number, sometimes we will have 12-15 but that does not let us down.
Since its cold we couldn't have the Grunden Bois of Soweto because there were on winter recess. Our training with them (Grundens) will resume on the last week of August.
Wire and Stapia