Dreams do come true

Special Commendation—Sports Development Award: Dreamfields

‘Dreamfields was launched on a wet and windy day in Orange Farm. The boys of Thetha Secondary school arrived expecting to play against another local school,” reminisces founder and chief executive John Perlman.

‘Instead they were told they had been matched with Moroka Swallows’ Under-19 team. ‘Were they daunted? Not a bit. With the scores level and three minutes left, Thetha’s Thabiso Mapisa chipped the ball over the Swallows keeper and scored a winning goal worthy of a cup final.

‘As we watched these young men show a stronger team what they could do when someone recognised their potential, it became clear—this is what Dreamfields was all about.”

Its aim is to use the excitement of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa as a force for good in rural and township communities.

Launched in October 2007, the Dreamfields project has set out to deliver playing fields, soccer kits and soccer events to disadvantaged schools around South Africa. The ‘deliverables” have been given catchy names.

DreamFields are level playing surfaces with a fence and goalposts, basic maintenance equipment and a container for storage. By July the project had built eight soccer fields, seven of them in rural areas.

Another two, in the rural Eastern Cape, are fully funded and ready for construction. DreamBags are soccer balls and clothing. By July 700 bags had been distributed countrywide, 93 of them to girls’ teams.

And DreamEvents are all-day tournaments for neighbouring schools. By July the project had staged 49 DreamEvents, ensuring that host communities benefit from local procurement.

Perlman says the project has reached communities in all provinces. More than 75% of its spending has gone to non-metro areas.

Dreamfields was set up with funding from BHP Billiton and Old Mutual. Each company put in R6.5-million, payable over three years, to cover the operating costs until the end of 2010.

There are seven staff members, operating from Johannesburg and Cape Town. To date it has partnered 23 corporations, 41 small businesses, eight government departments and seven charitable foundations. Even individuals have been caught up in the spirit of the project.

Jade Neser, an eight-year-old girl, asked her friends to help her buy a Dream-Bag for a nearby school instead of receiving birthday presents.

What about sustainability?

‘We have begun a programme of returning to communities one year after each DreamEvent,” says Perlman.

‘We use this to assess the state of the DreamBags and to consolidate the creation of ongoing league football activity.

‘We use the first DreamEvent to display a large floating trophy to the teachers and young players, which is handed out only once a full programme of league games has been played.”

Dreamfields’ goal is to develop a low-cost, low-maintenance football field using soil-stabilised pitches that require no water and little maintenance. Another challenge is providing permanent line markings.

‘We have innovated very successfully here, by trenching and cementing old mining conveyor belts into the sand as permanent line markings, and painting them with road paint,” says Perlman. ‘We are learning as we build.”