Much to the delight of the home crowds, the Molweni grannies team narrowly beat the team from Inchanga to once again be crowned the champions at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s (HACT) 9th annual Gogolympics event which took place at the Molweni Sports Ground on Friday, the 26th April 2019.
Over 1000 gogos from across the rural Valley of 1000 Hills region competed in the all-day, sporting extravaganza which was held in partnership with the Molweni community, Durban’s eThekwini Municipality, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sports & Recreation, the Fisher’s Net and the South African Department of Health. In addition to soccer, netball, running relays and traditional games, this year’s event also featured a board games competition for gogos with impaired mobility as well as a grannies pampering station where the gogos could relax and get their nails painted between the games.
Speaking at the event, HACT’s Gogo Support Groups Programme Manager, Sister Cwengikile Myeni said:
“This event means so much to our gogos who have all trained hard throughout the year in order to compete today. We are once again very grateful to the Molweni community committee as well as all our partners, sponsors and volunteers for helping us make this event a big success.”
HACT’s Gogo (Granny) Support Groups Programme currently provides psychosocial support and economic empowerment opportunities to a network of over 2000 gogos across eight communities in the rural Valley of 1000 Hills region in KwaZulu-Natal, many of whom are caring for orphaned grandchildren who have lost their parents due to HIV/AIDS, violence and other issues.
The aim of HACT’s one-of-a-kind Gogolympics event is encourage local gogos to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle which not only benefits them through stress alleviation and improved mobility, but also benefits the many orphaned grandchildren in their care.