The importance of sport and higher education was the focus of a recent visit to a shelter for abused children by CPUT’s Rugby team.
This year the CPUT team participated in the FNB Varsity Shield presented by Steinhoff International tournament for the first time and part of its involvement included a social awareness programme which required the sportsmen to form a long term relationship with a community organisation.
The rugby team partnered with CPUT’s Civic Engagement Unit to ensure that the relationship was formalised and continues in a sustainable way for both parties.
In April the team visited the Nonceba Community Centre in Khayelitsha where they handed over a cheque for R15 000 which had been donated by FNB.
CPUT Rugby team manager Theo Ngqwala says it wasn’t just the children who benefited.
“There were players who have never seen this before, children in a shelter, it touched them,” he says.
Manager: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Units, Jacqui Scheepers, says the shelter visit will be the first of many for her unit and she looks forward to many more CPUT departments getting involved in changing lives.
“This Civic Engagement project is a collaborative one with the Student Affairs Department and shows that institutional departments and units can work together to make a positive impact in communities,” she says.
Social Worker Supervisor at Nonceba, Nozuko Conjwa, says CPUT’s involvement was about more than just money, it also opened the youngster’s eyes to new possibilities.
“We will be able to motivate them to get them to consider tertiary education and explore their dreams. Linking sport to education is a bizarre concept for us but to be successful you need to link both, to achieve their social life and their education,” she says.
