The Leap of Faith Foundation is a Non-Profit Organisation born and established in a city which gave us our passion to create real change, Bloemfontein. As co-founders of this organisation, we each had our individual means of achieving this change. Which all felt natural because these were all things of which our talents and dreams were based on. All this, accompanied by our strong desire to make right the social injustices and inequalities which ultimately affect our youth and how our future as a country manifests itself, we committed ourselves to making a change through the platform of the Leap of Faith Foundation (LoFF)
My name is Kamohelo Poone, a co-founder of LoFF. I was born and bred in Bloemfontein and my journey to being a part of this organisation began in how I grew up. Even though I was raised in the township of Rocklands, I attended the top-class, private school of St. Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein. And now as a 27 year old young man, I realise that because of how I grew up, I had far more opportunities and ultimately a better chance of making a success of myself. And that is where I identified my greatest social injustice. How the lack of opportunities will continue to oppress a certain few.
And so, the Rockland’s Football Academy is how I will address this problem. By creating a abundance of opportunities for our youth so that they may escape the grip of oppression.
As a project underneath the umbrella of the LoFF, the Rockland’s Football Academy, established 2013, aims to be the first, non-affiliated, independent Academy in the city of Bloemfontein. The Academy has so far been able to operate totally independent through the generosity of a special few and through personal initiative, such as the Walk of Faith. A fundraising and awareness project which earned us our first official team kit. And that is where we as a Academy are right, we are busy growing.
We are currently in search of a official kit and team sponsor, and I will continue my quest of walking from Bloemfontein to Kimberley and completing the challenge and awareness campaign that is the Walk of Faith. And for me personally, I know that I want us to be among the elite in football development, but I know that to accomplish this, I will need a Mentor. Someone who can say I have been where you are and made it through successfully.
Because this Academy has the aspirations of growing to be one of the most recognised Clubs in the country. Through our persistence; our goal of building top class grounds and facilities so that we no longer have to practice on a gravel pitch; and a history of being a Club trying to give hope to the children who walk out its doors. We will, in time, achieve real change.’
Photographs: Gabriella Achadinha
Gabriella Achadinha is a freelance production coordinator who dabbles in photography as a side passion. Her photographs are predominantly shot on 35mm but she occasionally turns to digital, as with this series. She focuses on travel, the female form, landscape and documentary photography.
