Refilwe 2015

Refilwe would like to say a huge thank you to Kitaid for donating football kit to their football team. Refilwe is a community development initiative based in Lanseria, Johannesburg. Refilwe's mission is to help children and adults to become sustainable: spiritually, mentally and physically, and to break the cycle of poverty in all these areas so that they can develop into contributing members of their community and society. Founded in 1991, initially as a health care clinic, Refilwe have since developed a strong focus on child care, community development and skills upliftment through education and mentorship. All individuals at Refilwe are encouraged to improve themselves, ensuring a better future for themselves and their families.

Refilwe is next to an informal settlement called Joe Slovo and in the past couple of years the relationship between Refilwe and Joe Slovo has strengthened considerably. Refilwe employs people from Joe Slovo, they provide after care and holiday tutoring programs for the children, every Saturday the children come to Kids Club and are given a hot lunch, there is a skills upliftment program in horticulture, sewing, catering and carpentry and Refilwe encourage a hand up rather than a hand out through a recycling exchange project.

 

The relationship has been strengthened through the Refilwe football team combining with the Joe Slovo football team that now trains weekly and takes part in local Sunday league. The kit that Kitaid provided replaces a kit that is old and mostly lost. Calday Grange Grammar School visits Refilwe every year and has done for ten years with a group of sixth formers and a major part of the visit is the annual Refilwe vs Calday football match. Calday won the match every year from 2010 to 2014. The Refilwe/Joe Slovo team had no idea we were bringing them a new kit and were incredibly excited and grateful to receive it. The coach Etu, pictured with the old Refilwe FC shirt, has learnt from previous experience and will keep the kit himself and at every training session or match will hand it out and get it back at the end in order to make it last longer and keep it in good condition.

Refilwe/Joe Slovo FC played the 2015 match in their new kit and having trained long and hard for a match they get very excited about, even creating a new trophy for the occasion, won the match convincingly with a score of 3:1.

Both Calday and Refilwe would like to thank Kitaid for their support and the donation of the kit. The whole team was extremely happy to have received such a generous donation and will enjoy the kit for a long time to come.