Canoeing, Climate Change, Community
Sibusiso, South Africa
Goal Click and UNICEF UK collaborated on a series that highlights the impact that Soccer Aid for UNICEF has on children around the world. In an effort to protect children from the impact of climate change and environmental degradation, UNICEF South Africa has partnered with Canoeing South Africa, with the Grootbos Foundation identified to implement the Sport for the Environment and Climate Change programme.
The Grootbos Foundation is a non-profit organisation, established in 2003 with the vision of conserving the unique Cape Floral Kingdom and a mission to develop sustainable livelihoods in the communities through ecotourism, enterprise development, sports development and education. The Development Canoeing Programme for 8-15 year olds is run on the Klein River in Stanford in partnership with the Stanford Canoe Club. It teaches basic water safety and water conservation, and gives opportunities to participate in local and national canoeing, marathon and sprint regattas throughout the year. Sibusiso has been part of the programme for five years.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your sports journey?
My name is Sibusiso. I am 16 years old and I am studying in grade 11 this year. When I was 11 years old, suddenly something bad happened to me. I lost my mother. Life got very tough without her and it is still tough till today.
Growing up in Gauteng I heard about a sport called canoeing. I got very obsessed with canoeing since that day, but the places that had canoeing clubs were very far from my home. It was very expensive to join those clubs, so I could not afford it. After my mother's death I had to relocate because there was no one who was going to look after me, so now I live with my sister.
One day a Grootbos Foundation coach Danver came to our school to look for people who were interested in canoeing. I was very excited to hear that there was a canoeing club here and it was free to join. I gave Danver my name. People told me negative things about canoeing, like "it is dangerous there, you will die", but I told myself that this is the only chance that I have, so I am not going to fear anything. I joined canoeing and that is when I started being involved with Grootbos Foundation. I started paddling on the 27th January 2018 so I have been involved with Grootbos Foundation for five years.
My sports journey has been very difficult and it is still difficult, because I am doing two sports at the same time. I canoe four times a week and I am also a soccer player. So I have to train three times a day. First I have to go to the gym. After the gym I must go to canoe training, and after that I must go to soccer practice.
I sometimes miss some training sessions because I do not have time to attend all of them but I always make sure that I am not missing canoe practice. I am always late for canoe practice but they say "better late than never", so I believe in that. My competition has been very tough but I am always doing my best to represent my village, my school, my club and most importantly myself.
What did you try to capture with your photos? Was there a wider meaning with the photos?
The photos were taken at home, at the clubhouse, and on the water. There is my sister, my K2 canoeing partner, my friends, my coaches, my teammates, and things that are close to me, like my mother's photo . They all have their important roles that they play in my life and they really mean a lot to me because I would have been nowhere without them.
I wanted to capture my background, the people who play important roles in my life, and things that I do. I also showed the way I must walk to get to training.
Why is canoeing so important to you and your community?
Canoeing is important to me because it teaches me a lot of things. It shows me that I can achieve anything if I can just work hard, put in more effort and dedication to what I want to achieve. It also teaches me to believe in myself. I remember when I was still on a guppy (a K1 canoe designed for younger children) and I was 13 years old, the club hosted marathon championships. Since I was 13 I had to do 5km. I was very scared when I saw the paddlers that I was going to race against. I even thought of not racing, but coach Rodger came to me and told me to calm down and just to give it my best. I did as he told me and I came first. From that day I started believing in myself.
To be honest canoeing has not been important to everyone in the community but now we have shown the community how important canoeing is, so there are a lot of people from the community who want to join canoeing.
What impact has the Grootbos Foundation program had on you? What does the program mean to you?
Grootbos Foundation has done a lot for me. I could have been nowhere with canoeing without Grootbos Foundation. It has not only been supporting canoeing, it also helps the community with other things. For example, when someone wants to start a business but he/she does not have money or sponsor to start that business, Grootbos Foundation will sponsor that person. The programs that they are doing for me and for the community really mean a lot. No words can ever explain how grateful I am to the Grootbos Foundation for creating these programs .
How has canoeing helped you learn about climate change? What do you think needs to be done to help fight climate change?
I am very worried about climate change. Our water will be polluted and we might not be able to paddle on that water because we might catch diseases. Like in other countries, people are dying because of drinking polluted water. We need to stop polluting water and we need to keep our dams and rivers clean as we do in our club. We sometimes take our time to clean the river by removing things that pollute our water.
Canoeing has helped me learn about climate change. Our coach Rodger used to tell us that each and every piece of paper we see that belongs in the bin, we must take it to the bin so that we can help fight climate change and water pollution. And by doing that we are safe. The things that are happening in other countries are not going to happen in our country. We should do this not just for us but for our country.
What are your ambitions?
I have a lot of ambitions that I want to achieve, but first of all I want to go overseas to represent South Africa, my club, my school, and myself - and become a world champion. In the future I want to be a professional soccer player and also be a journalist. I am already used to focusing on two things, so I am sure I am going to manage being both a journalist and professional soccer player at the same time. I also want to have my own canoeing club.
What do you think the future looks like for sport in your community and country? What do you want to change?
People in my community are not focusing on sports like canoeing, because they think that you can never succeed in canoeing. People are focusing on other sports, not canoeing. They do not know how amazing canoeing is. But now sports are a second option if school does not work out. I want to show people how important sports are, because school might not work out for everyone so they must take sports as their second option.
