Laureus supports 30 incredible programmes in South Africa, each teaching the values that exist in sport; values such as teamwork, respect for others and hard work.
Johannesburg, South Africa (14 April 2022) – The Laureus Sport for Good Award was handed to Lost BoyzInc. in Chicago last week, ahead of the annual Laureus World Sports Awards announcement happening on the 24th of April in Seville, Spain.
LaVonte Stewart founded Lost Boyz Inc. in 2009 to help disadvantaged kids in Chicago’s low-income neighbourhoods. Stewart was coaching a boys team in Chicago’s Rosenblum Park when two men with a gun chased another through the area. The children’s inured reaction to the violence shocked their coach into action. The programme now provides at-risk youths with training and the competition of organised sport, but also economic and academic opportunities in an area where a third of residents live below the poverty line and are surrounded by gang violence. Eighty-eight percent of parents surveyed agree that Lost Boyz Inc. prevented their child from becoming a victim of youth violence.
Laureus-supported community projects span every continent and work passionately toward bringing positive social change and helping individuals overcome difficulties they face.
Doing Good in South Africa
Laureus supports 30 incredible programmes in South Africa, each teaching the values that exist in sport; values such as teamwork, respect for others and hard work. Most projects also have complementary programmes such as educational and life skills workshops and address social problems as diverse as drug abuse, tension between communities, racial and religious intolerance and HIV/AIDS.
Among them is the 9Miles project, which was established in Cape Town in 2013.
Motivated by his love for surfing and the pivotal role that the discipline of this activity played in his life, Nigel Savel, along with his wife Sher’Neil, started the project with the vision of improving their crime and drug-scourged community. Nigel recognised that the children growing up in the surrounding informal settlements were living with gangsters and drug dealers as role models and that there were very few organised activities or programmes to motivate and mould young impressionable minds. Surfing was used as a catalyst to entice students to the project and to teach them discipline, determination and life skills.
The combination of surfing, life skills education, and mentorship is a dynamic trio that produces lasting character, enhances self-worth and develops a goal-oriented mindset. From its beginnings in 2013, the project has grown to directly benefit over 1000 participants and operates in Cape Town (from headquarters at Strandfontein beach), St Francis Bay and Elands Bay. The project has become a haven for at-risk youth with very few positive role models in their lives.
Another inspiring Laureus supported project is the Johannesburg-based Skateistan, an international organisation that operates programmes in South Africa.
They have worked in the disadvantaged parts of inner-city Johannesburg since early 2014 when they started running outreach sessions in a previously abandoned skate bowl at a park in Troyeville. In August 2016, they officially opened a fourth Skate School located in downtown Johannesburg. The Skate School includes a state-of-the-art concrete skatepark and three-story education centre, with flexible office and classroom space.
They run five programs within the Skate Schools for children aged 5-17: Outreach, Dropping In, Skate and Create, Back to School and Youth Leadership. These programs combine life skills with fun, freedom and creativity to help create leaders for a better world. Programmes run five days a week in the afternoon for children to attend after they have been to school. Girls-only sessions address the gender divide and give girls an equal opportunity to join in.
For information about all 30 of the Laureus South Africa supported programmes, visit https://www.laureus.co.za/.
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