Scoring green goals for the environment

AP Photo / Denis Farrell

The City of Cape Town launched its "Making Connections: Soccer and the Environment" programme for learners today at the Athlone Soccer Stadium.

The programme comprises a poster (soccer actions on the poster are linked to an environmental action); an interactive play and teacher's guide (to give practical ideas and actions to help learners take positive action around key environmental issues); a teacher's workshop on these materials; an art initiative to paint municipal bus shelters and a six-a-side schools soccer tournament to be played on World Environment Day.

The aim of the project is to make the connection between sport and the environment with a special focus on soccer, leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The project will promote environmental awareness by encouraging participation and practical involvement of youth in the improvement of their local environment.

It will encourage learners to take ownership of resources such as soccer fields and school and community grounds, with the aim of developing an awareness of sustainability and the environment to encourage positive change. 

The programme will be rolled out to grade 7 learners at 40 schools across Cape Town that offer soccer as a sport. It will culminate in an under 13, six-a-side Environmental Soccer Tournament on World Environment Day, Saturday 5 June, six days before the kick off of the World Cup on 11 June 2010.

The poster features two teams - Planet Polluters versus Earth United - locked in a match with equal score, illustrating the suffering of the earth and that we, as humans, have to take actions to tackle environmental problems. Every soccer action on the poster has an environmental action linked to it.

The ‘colOURful busSHELTERs’ project promotes environmental awareness and highlights the importance of community involvement in protecting the city’s natural resources.

Learners from some of the 40 schools, under the guidance of a professional artist, will be able to express lessons learnt from the ‘Making Connections’ programme by painting murals on municipal bus shelters close to their schools. Thirteen bus shelters located close to the schools and on bus shelters along Klipfontein Road, close to the Athlone Stadium, will be painted.

The "Making Connections" programme is one of 41 projects included in the Action Plan of the Green Goal 2010 programme, Host City Cape Town's greening programme for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.