On Friday, 28 April, Athletes In Need, in collaboration with the J.B. Marks Local Municipality – Sports and Transversal Office, Standard Bank and Mashley Modelling Agency, donated sports gear to athletes in need.
According to Busang Molekane, AIN chairperson, the ultimate purpose of the #GiftASportsApparel initiative is to realise the dream of athletes in need with appropriate sports gear to enable them to reach their athletic goals.
“Through the organisation’s programmes and initiatives, we identified certain challenges restricting athletes from reaching their peak performance,” Busang said. He explained that this touched him and his colleagues as they, too, had experienced this challenge, hindering them from reaching their highest heights as athletes.
For this event, the first instalment of the initiative, they donated 35 netball shoes. “Of the players who received them, seven are learners from Thepo Primary School, which we have partnered with,” Busang explained.
“We also deemed it fit to collaborate the initiative with a GBVF (gender-based violence and femicide) awareness campaign to spread awareness in more applicable, relatable and engaging methods.”
He said they did this by using sports and edutainment to highlight the red flags within communities while simultaneously waving to-wards the direction of all the opportunities in the same environment.
“With the Ikageng police station being in the top 30 police stations with the highest reported sexual assault and GBVF cases, it is vital to us, as AIN, to continuously initiate and maintain such conversations with the youth,” he said.
Busang added that for AIN, the highlight of the day was seeing one of many of their dreams come true, reigniting the hopes of athletes from marginalised communities. “Seeing the smiles and jubilation of the participants and beneficiaries was breathtaking,” he said.
He added that another highlight was the presence and support from Sports, Arts and Culture MMC, Patricia Mtshali, who not only encouraged athletes to participate in sports but also played a netball exhibition match with the beneficiaries on the day.
Busang added that community members could expect more exciting events like sports tournaments. “The first tournament will be at Extension 11 in Ikageng on 6 May. At the tournament, we will donate sports apparel and equipment to the best-performing teams,” he said.
“Subsequently, the second instalment of the #GiftASportsApparel will happen in Khuma township.
