Acknowledgements and Support

streetfootballworld South Africa

Pentad House

55a Andries Street North

Wynberg

Johannesburg

South Africa

Re: Letter of Support

To Whom It May Concern,

As Communication Manager at streetfootballworld I am responsible for communication strategy, development and implementation in ‘Football for Hope’, the movement led by FIFA and streetfootballworld. I also designed and developed the ‘Siyakhona’ project.

Siyakhona is a project that trains young people from disadvantaged communities to be photographers and video journalists. It is part of Sony’s collaboration with FIFA on corporate social responsibility and is implemented through Football for Hope.

Siyakhona Africa seeks to create hubs of community journalism in disadvantaged communities. To implement this project effectively we needed a local, South African training partner which was able to work in very challenging environments and had a commitment to using the media to develop communities.

In Hillside Digital we found such a partner and have been extremely impressed by their commitment to using the media to create social change in some of South Africa’s most deprived communities.

I have experience in media training projects in India, China, Mozambique, Ghana, Namibia and Kenya and I have been very impressed by Danny Lurie and Nadiva Schraibman’s passion, commitment and dedication to working with young people from very challenging backgrounds.

I have also been impressed with the impact that the training programme has had on the young people themselves. Their testimonials about how the programme has changed their outlook, self-perception and opportunities have been important in convincing me of the success and future potential of this project to change the lives of young people in disadvantaged communities.

It is our hope that the Siyakhona Africa project can be expanded across Africa as part of ’20 Centres for 2010’, the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM that seeks to build 20 centres for education, public health and football across the African continent. We want each of these centres to become a hub for community development and we see the Siyakhona model as playing a key role in this.

Mike Geddes

Communications Manager streetfootballworld

Johannesburg, South Africa

July 2010