Johannesburg — The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Johannesburg race, which takes place at The Wanderers Club on Thursday at 6.30pm, will see 14 000 participants lace up and line up next to a host of Laureus Sport For Good ambassadors.
The Johannesburg race will officially launch the 2023 JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Series, and has both encouraged and celebrated workplace fitness since 1977.
Laureus Sport for Good Foundation has been the official beneficiary of the Corporate Challenge since 2014, with JP Morgan donating in celebration of all participants. With this being the 10th consecutive year of the relationship, all entrants will now have the wonderful opportunity to run alongside some of South Africa’s foremost sporting greats, Laureus South Africa ambassadors and media personalities.
In an exclusive IOL interview, sports all-rounder and former Proteas netball player Dumisani Chauke opened up about why it is important for each of us to continue doing our part and how she continues to play her part in empowering South African youth through her sport.
Chauke, who became an ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation two years ago, will participate in her second JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Johannesburg alongside fellow Laureus ambassadors, actor and philanthropist Maps Maponyane, altitude mountaineer and businesswoman Deshun Deysel, Springbok legend Butch James and Dan Nichol, who are amongst the inspirational South African Laureus Ambassadors participating in the largest after-work corporate 5.6km race later this week.
“In reflecting on the importance of Human Rights Day, which we celebrated just last week, we have the Bill of Rights which stipulates that everyone should have access to basic human necessities such as shelter, clean water and opportunities for employment, amongst other things. Even the right to play or participate in sport is important. In my view, these rights come with great responsibility and accountability. It means the responsibility of our youth to look after the opportunity granted to them and to make sure they don’t abuse or misuse those opportunities, but ensure they use them going forward,” says Chauke.
“When I was a young person in the mid-nineties, we did not have phones to surf the internet and be on social media, so sport became our safe haven and it translated into us taking it very seriously. Now due to certain socio-economic conditions and volatile environments some kids can’t even go out and kick a ball outside. We’ve needed to create safe spaces for young people to enjoy their sport.
“This is one of the reasons I am most looking forward to participating in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge as I love that Laureus Sport for Good as the beneficiary of the race can have a positive impact on communities by using sport for good,” says Chauke.
Laureus Sport for Good is a charitable organisation that supports various sport for development programmes around the world, who use the power of sport to bring about social change.
One of the impactful programmes is an inner-city Johannesburg programme called “Fight with Insight” which is a longstanding Laureus beneficiary that uses boxing to do rehabilitation work for youth coming from difficult circumstances.
Fight with Insight (FWI) was founded by Luke Lamprecht and Anton Gilmore and was launched in 2006. Lamprecht has over 28 years of experience in the child protection and development fields. He is a child rights activist and child protection specialist. Gilmore is an ex-professional boxer, trainer and promoter with first-hand experience of the impact of boxing on the lives of the youth. The programme was initiated as a sports component to The Teddy Bear Clinic’s Diversion Program for child sexual offenders – a specific group of youth at risk.
The results of the positive impact of boxing on children attending in comparison to those who were not, was the primary motivation for the decision to integrate boxing into the Diversion Program more holistically.
In 2013, in order to impact more children, Laureus urged Fight with Insight to focus on extending their reach beyond The Teddy Bear Clinic’s Diversion Program. In 2016 Fight with Insight launched programs for special groups of vulnerable children, including: The Johannesburg School for Autism; St Mary’s Children’s Home; The Talisman Foundation; Tara Hospital; Nkosi’s Haven; and Johannesburg Child Welfare.
Another powerful programme supported by Laureus, “Waves for Change” is a surfing programme which offers a community based, child-friendly mental health service to under resourced communities in the Western and Eastern Cape. The programme has 40 surf mentors, five safe beach hubs and 1 800 child participants.
Surf Therapy combines the positive health benefits of surfing and physical activity with activities proven to help young people build protective relationships, identify emotions, self-soothe and build a positive image of their future. It builds social connections, provides respite from difficult thoughts and feelings, and develops skills to cope with stress.
Part of the Waves for Change programme is The Wave Alliance, which through training and mentoring grows access to community-owned mental health services in coastal communities worldwide. Waves for Change provides training and support that helps members design, launch and evaluate their own surf therapy intervention.
These are just a few of the 35 initiatives earmarked by Laureus to benefit from this year’s JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Johannesburg.
Since its inception, the Foundation has raised over R80-million for projects and programmes which have improved the lives of more than 100 000 young people.
“The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in South Africa is extremely proud and excited to once again be part of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. Laureus currently impacts thousands of kids through the power of sport in South Africa and significantly more around the world, and thanks to the generosity of JP Morgan, we can continue to effect positive change on these young lives,” said Laureus South Africa CEO, Marlene Coetzee-George.
A detailed race route with highlighted road restrictions map can be viewed on the event website.
Laureus