Joy is round. Amen

In Africa, football is not a religion. But it is everything a religion should be.  (Acknowledgements to Jessica Hilltout).

Today we experience this firsthand.  We are standing in Hluvukani, a rural village deep in Mpumalanga, on the sidelines of a dusty soccer pitch. School is finished and all around us are hordes of school children in uniform, boys and girls from different schools, watching a soccer tournament being played. Four local schools have been invited to compete and the afternoon is loud with heat and dust and the high-pitched excitement of young voices. I have dust in my hair, on my face, up my nose. Parents and teachers patrol the sidelines, and every now and then the women-folk will burst onto the field, dancing and ululating if a goal is scored.


Parents and teachers celebrate their school's progress in the tournament.

Laduuuma! Spectators crowd around the nets to watch the outcome of a penalty shoot-out.

The heroes of the afternoon are the young soccer players in their matching kit, warriors each, who come off the field panting and blowing, socks around their ankles, shirts askew. They have played their hearts out but are already on the sidelines, eyes following the next game, hungry to go back out there. 

“If we let them, they will play to midnight,” says Ralph Mdluli, Secretary of the Manyeleti School Sports Council. As preparation for our visit, Ralph has coordinated schools from the surrounding areas to compete in a mini-tournament so that Mark and Tim will be able to get action footage to cover the Dreamfields project. Kids, parents, teachers have travelled from afar to be here. I’m very conscious that a lot of organization has gone into making this afternoon’s event happen for us.

"Football gives me wings."
Excitement runs high amongst the children who are totally camera-crazy, definitely not camera-shy.

Briefly, the Dreamfields project was started in 2007 by founder John Perlman, (in the build-up towards the 2010 World Cup) with primary funding from Old Mutual and BHP Billiton. The vision was to work together, in partnership with the Department of Education, to put resources for playing soccer into townships and rural schools across South Africa - quickly, efficiently – to reach the most remote corners of our country. Very simply the Dreamfields project provides three key soccer components:
- DreamBags, a full set of soccer gear and boots
- DreamFields, builds or restores soccer fields
- DreamEvents, celebrates the spirit of soccer with an event, on the pitches created, in the kit provided.

This afternoon we’re standing on one of three playing surfaces which the R1 million start-up funding from the Old Mutual Foundation contributed towards. It might not look like anything special if you’re used to smooth, grass-green football fields, but to this community it’s a joy - a completely level area that’s been graded bump-free, rock-free, puddle-free and even has junior-sized goalposts. Not only are there two fields to play on, but 20 schools in the surrounding area have each received team gear, boots and fully branded kit - ah, the bursting pride of every young soccer player. And yes, before you even ask me the question, girls teams as well as boys teams are included. Go little sisters!  

Many school children go to school every day without shoes, so a pair of soccer boots is a treasure.

Although the World Cup has come and gone, the Dreamfields legacy has grown from strength to strength into a vast, national-level, multi-corporate supported project which has touched close on 20 000 individuals, impacted 1 776 schools, built 13 soccer fields and hosted over 150 Dream Events in SA and Mozambique. It's got legs, as they say.

Interestingly, when I talk with John Perlman who has travelled from Jo’burg to join us, I ask him what his personal learning has been throughout the four years of this project and his reply is, “Just start! So often we plan things in excessive detail and think that we first require this or that or need a multi-purpose sports centres etc to make a difference, when actually you must just start, keep it simple, but just do something. ”

John Perlman, founder of the Dreamfields Project, Malwana Primary School, Hluvukani village, Mpumalanga.

Visit Dreamfields ...
- A soccer ball costs R88
- A pair of soccer boots R165
- A DreamBag with kit for 11 players, R3065

Did you know? 
I couldn’t quite figure out why the lines outlining the soccer pitch didn’t look white. It was only after Ralph and John explained to me that rural schools can’t afford to buy lime powder to mark out the soccer field, so instead make a huge bonfire before an event and use the residual powdery-grey fire ash to mark the pitch lines.

The spirit of soccer, the beautiful game. 



An enterprising gogo sets up shop; selling biscuits, chips and cooldrinks.



The excitement of a camera sent the kids wild and I got mobbed!
The girls kept stroking my hair and practiced their English on me, "I love you. You are my mother."