Chronicle Editor
Sione Amidu, Gwanda Correspondent
A NEW sports academy going by the name Bright Horizon Sports Club has opened its doors to Gwanda youths.
It is meant to be a safe haven for young people to spend their time away from social ills.
The academy is located in Gwanda Town and it specialises in a number of sports disciplines and targets youths.
Nozithelo Mabhikwa (31) founded Bright Horizon Sports Academy in March 2023 with the aim to create alternatives for recreation and sporting endeavour to keep youths busy and away from crime.
Mabhikwa is no newcomer to sports as she has previously had several roles and her aim is to commercialise and make it worthwhile to participants and potential partners.
According to her, the academy provides an alternative sports avenue for youths.
She became passionate about this after an encounter with a young man who had a passion for chess.
This made her realise that youths were short of facilities in Gwanda.
“I have been working with the Sport and Recreation Commission since 2011, first as a relief administration clerk then in 2016 as the Games secretary for the Matabeleland South SRC development committee. So I have been in the sports industry for quite a while.
“I want to help youths have careers in sports, to industrialise sport and make it attractive as it should be. This is an alternative to crime and drug abuse,” she said.
She said that she was inspired after seeing a young man’s love for sports, thus she decided to start the academy.
“I became passionate about this after an encounter with a young man called Bradley Moyo, his passion and enthusiasm for chess made me see the hunger. I then thought of other youths out there who have nowhere to go for their activities.
“This made me think of starting an academy where my job will be to monitor and push youths to have a safe haven where they can spend their time staying away from criminal activities and drug abuse.”
Other sports at the academy are darts, pool, volleyball, basketball and netball.
So far there are 40 athletes across the disciplines.
“Our main challenge is on funding, so far we have come up with sponsorship forms whereby we are asking for US$1 from the local community, since the establishment of the academy we have been traveling to different cities for competitions but we are not financially stable,” said Mabhikwa.
Online Reporter