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Saving South African Soccer |
SA medical staffing agency Ambition 24hours stepped in and paid for the air travel for the South African football team today when government funding was suddenly withdrawn before the departure of the 10-man squad to the Homeless World Cup in Italy next week. Once homeless herself, Ambition 24hours founder Penny Streeter is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs and now a major investor in Cape Town.
The Homeless World Cup, Milan 2009, runs from 6th to 13th September, with 500 players from 48 nations. An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless (Source: United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 2005). www.homelessworldcup.org
Penny Streeter was born in Zimbabwe. She moved to the UK and lived in a homeless refuge with her three children before starting her company in 1996. She is founder and managing director of Ambition 24hours, a medical staffing agency with a turnover of R900 million (year to June 2009). The company opened in South Africa in 2004 and launched a R140 million investment programme. It now employs 280 staff directly at offices in Bellville and Long Street, Cape Town.
" I read that funding by the City of Cape Town had to end because of huge demands on their budgets in the recession, so I felt I had to step in. Football for homeless people builds self-esteem: it brings purpose and direction to their lives. Homelessness is a terrible waste of good people, usually overtaken by events with which they just can't cope. You have to give them opportunity," said Penny Streeter.
South Africa hosted the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town 2006. The domestic league now involves 100 volunteers and activities in various communities of Cape Town and the Western Cape focusing on education, social support and HIV awareness for street children. The league has grown to involve over 700 players in 55 teams: 50 per cent of the players are currently living on the street, a number of them are in drug rehabilitation programmes and others in institutions for street people.
SAHSS (South African Homeless Street Soccer) has successfully used football to foster healthy individual development, teach positive values and life skills, strengthen education, and prevent disease through education (particularly HIV/AIDS).
Follow the team on the blog blog.a24group.co.uk
# For further Information:
www.a24.co.za |
