Yesterday marked the beginning of a great journey for South African Sport in general and the children in particular. The Laureus YES leaders of 2013 were officially graduating from the first level and second level of the programme; this initiative started in 2012 with only 11 youth leaders from all over South Africa whom are using sport to initiate social change, something to be commended because it has been a rare commodity in our country. This life changing event was held at the Discovery Soccer center in Johannesburg and the Durban YES leaders were transported by Mercedez Benz; fortunately I was one of them and we had a safe trip!

Laureus is a global organization that uses sport to transform lives all over the world. The Youth Empowerment through Sport (YES) Programme was initiated with the objective of creating a critical mass that is to go out and implement the skills learnt and gained in our various communities. In April a week long camp was held in KZN, eShongweni Dam’s Spirit of adventure camp site; the focus was on breaking the barriers, creating relations, learning IT computing skills and how to teach others the same skills, event planning and implementation to mention but a few. This was only the first phase of the training to be provided to us.

The second phase of training was conducted in June 2013 in various locations in SA, such as Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. These Hub trainings looked at educating and equipping us with skills to be applied in the workplace. Of course once again because of the great energy and enthusiasm we all showed in DBN, CPT and JHB these trainings were a success and the skills gained were equally being implemented. Another win for South Africa!

As from July till early October YES leaders all over South Africa and Lesotho were implementing sporting events that were aimed at reaching out to the youth and actually making a profound impact on their lives; in a nutshell someone would say, showing the youth that someone actually cares and they want to listen.

The third phase of the training focused on using radio to make an impact through reaching a wide range of people. This will in turn inform, educate and create awareness of the challenges faced by everyone. Whilst conducting this training, leaders learnt how to conduct on location commentary, interview, biographies and using audio in general to present a message effectively. This year has been amazingly profound for me and it has changed me.

The main reason for my writing this blog is not only to recognize the organizations that have assisted and still assisting us as YES leaders, it is to also make fellow South Africans to look at their lives, their communities and from there try and find means to better it. Anything is possible if we work together!

My greatest gratitude goes to these organizations, Peace Players International – South Africa, Laureus South Africa, Sport Science Institute of South Africa, Exercise Teachers Academy college, Youth Zones, Red Cap Foundation, Discovery, Mercedez Benz and everyone who provided the human capital.