2010 FIFA World Cup™ inspires social change comment count

• News
• June 22, 2010 ∥
• By Roy Barford

A member of the England Band meets a Cape Town child during a cultural exchange day on Friday. Photo by Roy Barford

South Africa has opened its heart to the world and embraced it with warm African hospitality. The world in turn has thrown open its doors to the sound of the vuvuzela, a township barbeque, doing the Diski Dance and the spirit of ubuntu. Both are opening their eyes to how the game of soccer can be used to pioneer positive social change. 

Vuvuzelas seem to be everywhere at the moment! Taking a step back and a long, hard look around it seems we might even have a vuvuzela coded into our flag >=== as a symbol of African joy and enthusiasm. While we were looking, we came across some exciting social development projects that have quietly arisen from the World Cup.

Kelp vuvuzelas are the eco-friendly, handcrafted and painted cousin of the plastic vuvuzela. Kelp Environmental Learning Project (KELP) creates the popular blow horns from the natural product kelp, a kind of large seaweed found all along the Cape coastline. The company’s owner, Adam Carnegie, experienced so much interest in the kelp vuvuzelas that he was able to employ two staff members while also running an educational and upliftment project for painters, with the beginners starting with simple paintwork like team colours, and more experienced team members working on designs like kelp warriors, flowers and sea creatures. To order your own marine blow horn visit http://www.kelpvuvus.co.za or give Adam and his team a call at +27 (0)21 705 3950.

Footballs for Fun is a charity organisation that is working toward getting 100 000 footballs to African children by the end of 2010. Children on this continent are incredibly resourceful and fashion soccer balls out of layers of melted plastic or bunches of elastic bands or plastic bags, in their desire to play the game and emulate their soccer heroes. The gift of a soccer ball may seem small, but to many children it is a big deal. Sports like soccer encourage children to use their talent and avoid unhealthy or unsafe environments. Footballs for Fun, through producing and selling soccer balls, which are then donated to children, generates funds. These funds are then donated in support of charities which deal with other issues affecting children in Africa, such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, abuse or trying social circumstance. Cape Town Tourism contributed 200 soccer balls to the Footballs for Fun initiative and we want to thank Western Cape football ambassador, Sergio Dos Santos, who had the enviable but hand-numbing task of signing some of them! To find out how you can make a contribution, visit http://www.footballs4fun.org. 

From the loud trumpet of our favourite national blow horn, to the joyous shouts that accompany the kicking around of soccer balls, to the magnificent Whisper Ball. Whisper Soccer Balls are floating soccer boats, shaped as balls, built by deaf students from the Whisper Boat Building Academy. The academy works to enhance the lives of deaf South African youth by developing their skills and cultivating expertise to ensure future employment opportunities. The Whisper Boat Building Academy is a non-profit organization that uses the latest German technology (another four goals for them), electrical motors and batteries charged by solar energy to create eco-friendly boats. 

The thing about Whisper Balls is that you really have to see them to appreciate them! Make your way along the V&A Waterfront Canal during the World Cup in a perfectly round, perfectly engineered … well, soccer ball. These boats will be manned by the youth of the Lzuvunguvungu Sailing Trust that forms the training pool for South Africa’s Team Shosholoza, who compete in the America’s Cup. Visit http://www.whisperballs.com or call +27 (0)82 802 7888 for more information. 

We would also like to remind all readers to pick up their special 2010 copy of The Big Issue magazine that is now for sale by vendors in beautiful rainbow bibs throughout the Mother City. Cape Town Tourism partnered with The Big Issue this year to create Your A-Z Guide of Cape Town as part of a crowdsourcing project. May we just say a great big thank you to the people of Cape Town for sending in the suggestions that enabled us and The Big Issue to put together an amazing guide that speaks of Capetonians’ love of their city. 

Remember to visit http://www.capetown.travel/2010 for more information on the World Cup events calendar, public transportation and the latest blogs and articles. And don’t forget to make your way to a FIFA Fan Fest™ or Fan Jol near you today to support Bafana Bafana.