Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe met the 2009 Homeless World Cup team at Parliament in Cape Town to congratulate them on their performance on 16 September 2009: http://is.gd/3pa0g

After a tough eight days of competition, the players beat Malawi 9-1 in the final of the Milan Cup, a trophy played for by the teams ranked between 17 and 24 from the original total of 48 who took part in this years’ competition.

The Homeless World Cup, Milan 2009, ran from 6th to 13thSeptember, 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 and 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 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).

# For further Information:
Ambition 24hours, A24 Group, a24group.com

Ambition 24hours,
PO Box 2194,
Bellville,
Cape Town
7535
T 0860 365 365

South African Homeless Street Soccer: CEO David Abrahams
T 083 640 6488
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www.westerncapestreetsoccer.org

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