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COOLPLAY
CoolPlay is a 15-year-old South African
non-profit organisation that empowers children from
underprivileged communities with life-changing
psychosocial skills through team sports
- building character,
resilience, and emotional well-being on and off the
field.
Children in South African townships experience an
average of eight traumatic events annually
- witnessing gang violence, death, abuse, and
living with substance-addicted caregivers. By age
16, they've endured over 100 traumas. With parents
often busy or absent, minimal after-school support
and overwhelmed schools, these children are left
vulnerable to substance abuse, gang recruitment and
teenage pregnancy.
CoolPlay delivers Social & Emotional Learning
(SEL) and mental well-being through team sports,
creating safe spaces where trauma doesn't define
destiny. Their 38 community-based Champions
(coaches) integrate mental health awareness, life
skills, and resilience-building into weekly rugby,
netball, and soccer sessions for over 2,500 children
across 22 under-resourced schools in the Western
Cape.
CoolPlay speaks the language, understands the
challenges intimately, and serves as powerful role
models - showing children
that someone who looks and sounds like them can
thrive. |
