The power of play
South Africans may be rasing the most sedentary generation of children yet. Too many children do not participate in sport and often do not have access to sports facilities.
This lack of physical activity is leading to a number of health problems.
Corporate Award-winning Supersport encourages youngsters to be active through its corporate social investment (CSI) programme, Let’s Play. This programme is a finalist in the Sports Development Award.
Vaughn Bishop, manager of CSI at Supersport International, says inactive children are not a problem unique to South Africa; the rest of the world is also struggling with the issue.
“In the United States obesity is the biggest killer and South Africa is following closely in American, British and Australian footsteps in terms of being overweight.
“If we do not address this issue now, we are going to have a serious problem in five to 10 years time.”
He says Let’s Play has a two-pronged approach: raising awareness of the problem and doing something about it by getting youth on to the fields.
Supersport has rallied support from government to partner existing programmes. This includes endorsements fromt eh departments of sport and recreation, education and health.
In addition the sports channel has managed to get other partners involved, including various government organizations and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“Unicef took notice of what we are doing in South Africa and decided it wanted to be involved … It channeled the support of the department of education and there is now recognition of the synergy between sport and education and the benefits that sport offers to children,” Bishop says.
Let’s Play targets schools with the highest prevalence of crime showing children that sport can change their lives. “Sport can make a difference in their academic lives and get them away from negative influences in their environment,” Bishop says.
The target is children aged between six and 12. There are about 12 million children in this group.
Let’s Play aims to raise awareness of the benefits of sport to children and Supersport has joined other media partners to reach a broader audience.
“Through this media network we are able to reach a large percentage of our audience,” Bishop says.
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