Mountain Mover Award
In the words of Goal50 founder, Nigel Pascoe, “The ‘mountain’ will continue to move if we can maintain good donation levels in the future. We continue to live with hope in our hearts. Hope is the catalyst to removing fear and despondency.”
Guernsey charity wins Cape Town award
Goal50 has supported the townships of South Africa’s Cape Flats for more than 15 years. A host of initiatives have been introduced to bring these communities together, working with schools, businesses, sports clubs, churches, law enforcement and drug rehabilitation. These bodies have consistently shown their gratitude with ‘thank you’ messages. But this is a collectively expressed gesture of thanks marked by the awarding the Mountain Mover Award. Each week, more than 3,000 meals are served in the township of Heideveld and 3,500 breakfasts provided to the Ark Drug Rehab Centre. These works demonstrate the commitment of the Guernsey charity.
Keen football follower Nigel Pascoe made the trip to South Africa in 2010 to watch the Football World Cup. His visit wasn’t only about watching the championships live - and England once again under achieve - he found himself on a fact-finding mission in the Cape Flats, just outside Cape Town.
Nigel had it on his heart to seek out and support people who were living in fear in townships under siege from violence, drugs and excess of alcohol.
Nigel met former gang leader Mario van Niekerk, a man who spent his childhood on the streets. Mario lost his teenage years and when he became a dad in his early twenties his life changed. He vowed that he would not let his son get caught in the same pitiful life process and he set out a plan to rescue as many of the next generation as he possibly could from the perils of gang culture.
Mario chose the universal language of football to get children off the street. He met street gangs face-on. He knew their language. He knew what motivated their existence. And in the year 2000 he opened a soccer academy. It grew. Mario found himself teaching life-skills as well as ball skills. He introduced the boys to reading and became a ‘father-figure’ in their lives.
A decade after the Soccer Academy was born, Mario came face-to-face with Nigel. For ten years, Mario had managed the academy with very limited financial resources. And with support, he had a vision for a raft of ideas that could help prosper township communities. After-school clubs started. A safe house for children emerged - also used as a pre-school education building. Teaching trade skills was introduced to improve employment opportunities. More recently a kitchen for the charity’s food programme has been built. And the most recent project is to build a community and educational centre, using some of the most advanced recycling techniques. Local architects see this building as a prototype for further constructions.
Goal50 now impacts on nearly 4,000 people each week, with an ever-increasing number of volunteers, part-timers and salaried staff operating on the ground. Change is happening, but mending a broken community needs time and commitment. The charity continues to work enthusiastically and tirelessly. Drawing on a host of fund-raising initiatives in Guernsey, the charity has certainly made the seemingly impossible, possible. Goal50 has had terrific support from local schools, businesses, sports clubs, church groups and private individuals making this happen. Nigel has worked with an endless commitment to make Mario’s dreams become reality.
In the words of Nigel Pascoe,
“The ‘mountain’ will continue to move if we can maintain good donation levels in the future. We continue to live with hope in our hearts. Hope is the catalyst to removing fear and despondency.”
With all this fabulous work being undertaken in the shadow of South Africa’s Table Mountain, the Mountain Mover Award is a truly deserved as well as highly appropriate accolade for Nigel Pascoe and Guernsey’s Goal50.
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