By Michael Vlismas.
Former Bafana Bafana star Mark Fish and one of the young footballers from the Izintambane School during the football clinic. Photo Credit: Fisher Foundation.
Former Bafana Bafana legend Mark Fish as well as leading footballers from the DStv Premiership team AmaZulu Football Club joined the Mthekwini community in northern KwaZulu-Natal as they celebrated the memorable opening of a new borehole at a local school this month that will provide drinking water for 400 children and their families.
The footballers treated the children of the Izintambane School on the border of the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park to a skills and coaching clinic on an emotional day for the local community, with the Fisher Foundation funding the new borehole project as part of its ongoing commitment to uplift the community of northern KwaZulu-Natal and create awareness in conservation amongst rural communities living close to national parks.
Water is a critically scarce resource in this community and the new borehole will provide vital drinking water, especially in the dry winter months, as well as enable each child to take home bottled water after school.
The Fisher Foundation arranged for Fish and fellow footballers Olwethu Mzimela, Thembela Sikhakhane and Rally Bwalya to share their skills with the children as well as upskill the community coaches. Local farmers helped with the logistics around the football clinic while sports equipment supplier Umbro donated kit for the young footballers in the community.
“I’m very grateful to be able to add to what the Fisher Foundation is doing in this community. It’s always humbling when you come to the rural areas and an eye-opener for us to be able to keep asking the question what we as a football community are doing to uplift our local communities,” said Fish.
Sanitary packs were also handed out to the young girls in the community.
“When we received the invitation to partner with the Fisher Foundation on this initiative we jumped at it because these types of outreach programmes and very important to us. We also handed out 100 bags of sanitary towels, which is a campaign we are busy with to ensure that a girl child should not miss school because of a natural occurrence in their bodies,” said Mpho Dintwa, AmaZulu Community Trust Programmes Manager.