If we do nothing, nothing changes – Ajax Foundation in South Africa

If we do nothing, nothing changes – Ajax Foundation in South Africa

In South Africa, Police cars drive into the township Khayelitsha that is located in the city of Cape Town. They stop in the middle of the district, followed by a red-white car from Ajax Cape Town. Sports equipment is being unloaded and the children of the neighbourhood arrive curiously. 

Recently, Jeroen Slop, board member of the Ajax Foundation, and Rutget Arisz paid a visit to the neighbourhood of Khayelitsha to experience the community initiative that has been called into existence for the children and young people of the neighbourhood.

GANGSTERS AND DRUG USERS

In Khayelitsha, once a week, the Ajax Foundation creates a safe environment for children, where they can play in a safe manner in the presence of 15 police officers. In the evening, after the programme has ended and the Foundation and the Police have left, the place changes again into a local meeting point for gangsters and drug abusers.

This is being illustrated by a graffiti on a nearby wall, which says “RIP Innocent Spider”. It refers to a man who was shoot a couple of months ago.

A safe environment to play

The crime rate of the neighbourhood makes the local programme especially valuable. Slop explains, ” if we don’t do anything, the children will have nothing at all”. The team is moved by the image of a 3-year-old boy who is walking aimlessly in the streets. He has no parents and no family in the neighbourhood. In the town ship, parents of children either work a lot of hours per day or use drugs. Often, the little ones are left to themselves, hoping to be lucky enough to survive another day in this enviroment.

For the next two hours, this will not be the case for the children. They can play football in a save manner, only thinking about how to kick the ball and score a goal. The children play barefoot but that does not stop them from feeling free and happy for a couple of hours. Since girls and boys are rarely playing football together, different activities have been designed for the girls.

The danger of drugs

Not only the 5-12 year olds benefit from the Community Scheme Project. Also younger people between 14-16 years old do. Slop explains that “in the morning, we visited a school where one of our coaches explaind to a group of young people the dangers of drugs. They received a brochure which described in detail the topic of drug addiction.”

The coach asked the children if one of them has tried drugs before and a couple of children responded that they had been taking cocaine and used marijuana previously.

What does it cost to play football at Ajax

Back to the field – the little boys do their best to impress. Shooz, the man of Ajax Cape Town tells, “the mother of one of the children asked me how much does it cost to play for Ajax.”, Slop responded, ” I explained her that this is not the way how it works. If the boy has talent, he will naturally stand out. ” Hearing that, the mother kept cheering and encouraging her child as much as possible.”