By Luvuyo Mjekula
Alicedale children enjoyed an exciting mix of fun, fitness and competition last weekend, thanks to the Khulasande Wonder Kids Programme.
The programme supports exceptionally talented track and field, cross country, and road running athletes from Addo, Alicedale and Komga to help them reach regional, provincial and national level.
The programme offers professional coaching to young athletes, promotes mass participation in sport and teaches life skills using sport, among other things.
The programme is the brainchild of the Khulasande Sports Development, a non-profit organisation with a goal of implementing sports development programmes in rural and township communities in the Eastern Cape.
Khulasande was formed in 2016 with offices in Gqeberha, but operates throughout the Eastern Cape, particularly in Addo, Alicedale and Komga.
The aim of the project is to identify 20 exceptionally talented children and youth from Alicedale and Komga and present them with opportunities to excel in track and field athletics, road running and cross country at regional, provincial, national, and international level.
The 20 athletes will form the foundation of the Wonder Kids Programme in these communities which will run for the 3–5 years depending on funding availability, says the founder and managing director of Khulasande Sports Development, Thobela Thoba.
Thoba says the programme has a proven success record in Addo, with 40 athletes having gone on to represent Eastern Province Athletics and Eastern Cape Schools Athletics in track & field, cross country and road running national events, with three athletes delivering two gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal from various national championships since 2019.
“With the assistance of our stakeholders, Grassroots Youth Development and SANParks, we hope to see the programme grow from strength to strength with more children accessing formal competitions at regional, provincial, and national level. We also hope to see the new programme in Alicedale and Komga grow and produce athletes that will represent Eastern Province and Border Athletics respectively in the different running disciplines.”
Thoba says the key feature of the programme is developing young coaches from each community to lead the athletes.
“We have been formally implementing the Khulasande Wonder Kids Programme in Addo since 2021 and the programme is currently in expansion and is being implemented in Alicedale and Komga.”
To launch the initiative in Alicedale and Komga, Thoba says they hosted the inaugural Khulasande 5km Community Fun Run/Walk on 3 August 2024 “as part of our community activation initiatives and a talent identification programme”.
The initiative also served as their first community initiative, bringing recreational sport to the community with future events being planned to be held in Makhanda in December, Thoba explains.
The results from the Alicedale programme:
