Ms Siza Magubane (Unisa) & Prof Jan Willem Teunissen (VUA)
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As a result of a Memorandum of Understanding that has been signed by Unisa and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA) in support of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, a meeting was held in February between the Unisa soccer club (UNISOC) and Prof Jan Willem Teunissen from VUA.
Prof Teunissen provided some insight into how development programmes are run by the Dutch, and made some suggestions about how Unisa can participate in soccer development programmes, in particular. He suggested that the model used by the Dutch could be adopted by Unisa to develop its social awareness and responsibility programmes.
Prof Teunissen and VUA, in association with Unisa, will run soccer clinics for children from disadvantaged schools in June this year. The aim of the clinics is to teach the children specific societal and organisational values, such as leadership, teamwork, coping with winning and losing, discipline and enthusiasm.
The clinics will take place two days before each Dutch game: Pretoria on 12 June 2010, in Durban on 17 June 2010 and in Cape Town on 22 June 2010.
Two clinics will be held on each specified day and will accommodate up to 60 children at a time. These children, aged between 12 and 16, will be pre-selected from different schools in each of the areas. The clinics will be held at sporting fields with mobile soccer posts and will be facilitated by Prof Jan Willem Teunnissen and assistant coaches or trainers.
The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup is a celebration of international cooperation and reconciliation between people from around the world, regardless of race, gender, ethnic or social origin, age, belief, culture, language or other differences. It is a global spectacle that will unite people of the world through sport. In essence, the involvement of Unisa and VUA in this soccer spectacular highlights the role of universities in building a nation, fostering teaching and promoting scholarship. |
