Young students collects hundreds of soccer boots for underprivileged kids!

Two young South Africans have started an initiative to collect and distribute hundreds of soccer boots to underprivileged kids.

Grade 4 Nathi Ncukana teamed up with Grade 10 Jacob Nkwamba to assist kids who could not afford soccer boots for themselves.

“I was watching a football match with my Dad at a school in Thembisa School when I noticed that some of the players did not have boots. Some boys were playing in slippers, others in slip-slops and others were wearing socks or were barefoot, that’s when I knew I had to do something.”

Both of the young South Africans attend King Edward VII School (KES) and King Edward VII Preparatory School (KEPS) respectively and the school jumped on board to assist them as soon as they heard about the initiative.

To date they have collected close to 300 pairs of boots and over R4000 in monetary donations to assist underprivileged kids.

“It was slow when I first started, I was the first to donate my boots and I stood up in assembly and asked the other boys to please donate theirs once they had grown out of them. Before the Football Festival we had collected 56 pairs just from K.E.P.S. boys and Staff. We gave some boots to our Staff who did not have boots to play in. Most of the boots were handed to Dimitri from Jacoba straight after the Festival.”

The boots that were collected will be donated first to learners in need at KES and KEPS as well as students at the Jacoba Academy in Orange Grove. Dimitri Athanasopoulos from the Jacoba Academy said the purpose of the academy is to use sports an an engine to drive social development.

“We want to take kids off the streets and help them through sport with housing, food and other needs they might have.”

Both of the young inspirations are thankful for all the donations but are not stopping there. They have realised that there are many kids in South Africa who want to play sports, but cannot afford the gear and they are hoping to extend the initiative to other sporting fields too.

To get involved or for more information, click here.