The real tragedy of HIV is the social and economic deprivation that follows in its wake; the consequent loss of the hopes and dreams for the future for whole communities.
Our concept for this competition has been to seize the opportunity that football offers as a fantastic way of bringing people together, and use it to create a place that offers real and tangible hope - education, economic opportunity, and social cohesion.
We have therefore expanded the brief to create a new centre for Somkhele, one that is integrated into the landscape, that can be easily built using existing skills and local materials, that can be personalised by the community. We have tried to create an infrastructure that will support a whole series of activities from hanging out to teaching, trading and small scale agriculture. Integral to the whole approach has been the provision of the basics - access to water and electricity and the means of making the provision of these services income generating activities for the community.
Our aim has been to create a place that acknowledges the problems facing the community but is about more than that, about the Somkhele youth and the possibilities they can have for the future - THE PERFECT PITCH for the future generation.
