Developing Vulnerable Kids Thru Sport South Africa

United Through Sport (UTS) is a development through sport organisation, meaning we use sport  as a tool to develop children and youth in the programmes holistically, and not only to develop their sporting abilities.

In the Senior School of Excellence (SSE) programme, we have placed a number of children from disadvantaged schools on scholarships at top schools in the city. Most of the children are placed on sport scholarships at the different schools, but we have a number of children that are awarded the opportunity based on their academic abilities more than their sport potential or talent.

One such child is Chadleigh, who is in grade 11 at Alexander Road High School and has been on our scholarship programme for four years now.  This young man has always impressed his school, parents and UTS with his school grades, and has always been an inspiration to his classmates to give their best in their school work. His warm, friendly and outgoing personality makes him very popular with his peers too. Amongst a few other activities,chess is one of his favourite things to do and that is no surprise as some of his skills can be attributed to his love of the game.

Recently, Chadleigh took part in a Maths and Science Olympiad, amongst 6 scholars from his own school and 16 other schools with a total of 275 learners in the competition. In the senior division of the Maths Competition, Chadleigh outdid his fellow participants by taking first place, winning himself a cash prize and a bursary for any course of his choice in the Science& Maths department at Rhodes University when he finishes school in 2018. He is thrilled at the opportunity and cannot wait to finish school to study at such a prestigious University in 2019! “Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world and I am very fortunate to be accepted at Rhodes on scholarship” he explained with excitement.

It indeed is very rewarding to the organisation when the beneficiaries flourish and have the opportunity to change the cycle of poverty that they come from. Well done to Chadleigh and we salute him for all the effort he continuously puts into his school work.