23 Feb 2017

Most of the out of school youth are talented individuals who at times feel challenged to expose and make use of their talents.

This is often due to issues of lack of relevant inspiration from those around them and the tendency by some members of the community labelling them failures.

Such comments negatively affect their self-esteem and eventually this pushes some of them to the edge of engaging in mischievous acts.

However, some individuals have provided a helping hand so as to work closely with some of these youths in efforts to uplift and encourage them to unearth their talents.

One such is a 31 year-old Kitso Khuwa, who formed a club dubbed MA 14 Social Club and currently is focused on grooming football talent within some of the youth.

Khuwa said he is into football largely due to the fact that some of the youths who hang around with him have shown passion towards football.

“Most of these youths are talented individuals who only need to be driven to the right path through encouragement,” he said.

Through his social club, he works on voluntary basis with some of the male youth aged between 17 and 25 years from areas of Bluetown, Monarch, Kgaphamadi, Block 1 and several other areas within Francistown.

Khuwa said though he has been fortunate enough to excel and join the nursing profession, he felt the need to come up with means that would inspire his fellow youth.

While he was still a student at the University of Western Cape in South Africa, he came up with the idea of the club.

He said he depended on his monthly allowance to get things running, citing purchasing of soccer kits, balls and relevant other necessities and he would then ask for technical assistance from individuals experienced in playing football.

MA 14 Social Club has been in existence since 2008 and its effort has not gone to waste as most of its participants have been well groomed and they now look up to their talent to make ends meet.

“Mostly they are often engaged by different teams to play in tournaments or when the need arise and later given some monetary rewards,” said Khuwa.

Additionally, Khuwa said some of the professional teams also scout players from his club and recently 11 Angels Football Club, which plays in the Francistown Regional Football Association under Division 1 have identified a striker and necessary procedures have been done.

The chairperson of 11 Angel Seemo Mpatane confirmed that they have identified a promising striker from MA 14 Social Club who is now fully engaged with them.

Mpatane hailed the efforts by MA 14 club indicating that it is handy as the youth engaged with them are groomed to a satisfying level.

Meanwhile, Khuwa further said though he intends to yield more good results, he sometimes feels challenged due to lack of adequate resources.

With time, Khuwa said he will consider extending the scope of his club and introduce other areas such as poetry, drama, and music because a lot of youth with more different talents have shown interest to work with him.BOPA