Soccer Centre brings hope for the youth

The Mogalakwena Football for Hope Centre Project will play a major role in assisting in the fight against crime and unite communities through football, said Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, MEC of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture on Friday.
Letsatsi-Duba, the Waterberg District Municipality Executive Mayor, Tlotlanang Mogotlane and the Acting Mayor of Mogalakwena Municipality, Melba Mabusela had on Friday officially opened the FIFA Football for Hope Centre in Pholar Park Village, just outside Mokopane.
The Centre has rooms for educational activities and community gatherings, public health services, office space, and an artificial-turf field. It also includes several all-purpose rooms, for private counseling. A Grassroots Soccer Skills coach will be staffed on site at all times.
The focus will be on soccer tournaments, coaching, counseling, talent search and career guidance.  A mobile clinic that will provide health services, will be based in the building on Thursdays. It is one of 20 such centres across Africa and one of 5 in South Africa.
Twenty Centres for 2010 is an official campaign by FIFA that coincided with the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Twenty centers are being built in twenty different cities across Africa.
The South African Red Cross Society branch of Mokopane was selected to be one of the centre’s hosts in 2010. The Mogalakwena Municipality - which is a key partner of the project - gave 3.5 hectares of land for the construction of the field and building.
With pre-construction investment by FIFA, the Red Cross was able to reach out to over 11035 young people through soccer and other sporting activities using the funding from FIFA.
Before the site visit by the entourage Letsatsi-Duba said the opening of this centre came at the perfect time. “The use of drugs and other substances is very prevalent amongst our youth. This has been attributed to moral decay and the lack of recreational facilities. After school hours, our children do not have anything to do. They go to shebeens and indulge in drugs and unprotected sex. Teenage pregnancy and the spread of HIV/AIDS becomes inevitable.”