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World Cup 2010: poverty is alive and kicking in South Africa's townships
30/03/2010  by Telegraph.co.uk
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When Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and Kaka climb into their gleaming coaches and speed towards sparkling new training facilities this summer, they will pass townships where kids kick around a ball made of plastic bags and string.


Pointing the way: Lionel Messi is sure to be one of the stars of the 2010 Wolrd Cup but let's not forget those who cannot even afford to buy a football

They can only dream of the sumptuous balls the stars train and play with.

With good people like Danny Jordaan running the World Cup, South Africa 2010 should be a great success, a stage fit for the talents of Rooney, Messi and Kaka, but they must guard against locals feeling strangers at their own party.

In a country where the minimum wage is roughly 230 Rand (£21) per week, many South Africans covet, but cannot afford, the official World Cup ball at 249 Rand for the replica let alone 999 Rand for the full-monty "Jabulani".

"Currently, the majority of young footballers in South African townships have no choice but to play with rudimentary, home-made footballs,'' says Will Prochaska, director of Alive and Kicking UK, a social enterprise that has set up stitching factories in Africa to produce good-quality, affordable balls.

Alive and Kicking, which numbers this reporter among its trustees, will stitch 60,000 leather balls in 2010, with half distributed free to underprivileged children's projects in Africa.

"With multi-millionaire footballers set to use the best equipment in shiny new stadiums, it seems a shame this won't be a realistic aspiration for many children in the country,'' adds Prochaska, who is determined "to help reverse this iniquity''.

More than 1,000 balls are being handed out in the townships, all branded with HIV or Aids awareness messages.

Readers wishing to make sure South African kids can have a ball at the World Cup can donate one for just £12.50 at www.aliveandkicking.org.uk

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