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| What's on: |
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Leveling the rural playing fields | |
 South Africa has a wealth of sporting talent that is locked away in rural villages and on farms, and often goes wasted and unidentified. The Rural and Farm Schools Sport Tournaments are invaluable in showcasing such talent to the broader sporting fraternity, but also an opportunity for youth from rural South Africa to celebrate their sporting talent. 
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| Sport mentoring. |
The Rural and Farm Schools Sport Tournaments is jointly hosted by the Department of Education and Transnet Foundation. Learners from all nine provinces across South Africa participate at the National Tournament to compete in Football, Volleyball, Netball and Cross Country Marathon.
The competition starts at provincial level with teams pushing to every limit to secure a win and compete at the most sought after National Tournament. The youthful sporting enthusiasm of the rural learners, add value to the talent identification purpose of the Tournaments. Sporting bodies are invited to scout for talent at the National leg of the Tournament.
Annual participation for learners and educators is as follows:
- 22 000 learners from 75 schools participate at inter house competitions.
- 5 000 learners participate at the 4 regional tournaments.
- 1 000 learners participate at the national tournament.
- 80 Local Organising Committee members are trained in event management.
- 80 team managers are trained in team management activities.
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| Success in sport builds character. |
The exposure is something that does not happen often for these youth from farm schools, and when this sport tournament happen young boys and girls spread their wings to grab the opportunity, and strive towards excellence in their sporting code. Sport, and the Tournaments, becomes their wings. It has the potential to take them to places that they could otherwise only dream of, and furthermore to grow into responsible and caring adults.
Although the main focus of the Games is on school sport in the rural and farming communities, it is also aimed at being an intervention at schools that have low pass rates, high absenteeism, low educator morale and high drop out rates. Sport becomes an agent for change at these schools, and this is the added impact of the Rural and Farm Schools Sport Tournament – because learners have a goal to strive for, their discipline is improved and the school community benefits.
The Rural and Farm Schools Tournaments continue to make a profound impact on the lives of the participating young athletes. For Transnet Foundation, this sport tournament is a symbol of the long road that these athletes travel from grassroots to glory in sport. For the athletes, it is an inspiration to continue on their path to even greater glory.
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