Rural women and rugby

Pass the ball backwards and pay it forward

As rugby fever grips South Africa and keeps the nation glued to their television screens during match time, a craze of a different kind is kicking off on the sidelines. It’s called the Touch initiative and it is Thurlow Hanson-Moore’s (of the  social brand agency The Win Win Group) brainchild. While he was conceptualising  a cause related campaign for his clients from the  waste management company EnviroServ, he came up with the innovative idea of making rugby balls from recycled materials.

Two months of product development and prototype testing later, and the result is a funky and very authentic looking rugby ball. The exterior is made out of old billboard material, the interior out of old plastic bags, sheets and bubble wrap and the only non-recycled material is  the lace-up detail and the eyelets.

In order to make the recycled rugby balls and at the same time create employment opportunities, the Touch initiative partnered with the job creation NGO “Live”. Using Anglo Coal’s community centre at Goedehoop Mine as a starting point, it wasn’t long before Live founder Russel Porteous had Joanna and various other ladies from the surrounding areas stitching and sewing away.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however. Initially Porteous admits that he didn’t realise Joanna didn’t speak  English, and the result of his explanations and requests was in fact a perfectly square rugby ball.

He realised that a little bit more of an explanation and a set of templates and patterns would go a long way. Once the basics were in place and the ladies had had a few practice rounds, they were churning out balls perfect for any impromptu game of touch rugby.

“The idea of rural women and rugby is such an anomaly, but it creates   an interesting energy at the same time,” explains Hanson-Moore. “Balls are beautiful things. Give someone a ball and they play with it, so what we’re  doing is using the  balls as a way to break down the barriers between people at a time when we are all so polarised.”

Just last week Friday Porteous visited the ladies at Goedehoop and walked in to find two of them wearing Springbok rugby jerseys for “Bok Friday”. Others were wearing EnviroServ t-shirts that had previously been handed in, showing  just how much they had come together as strangers and formed a community and team of their own in a mere matter of weeks.    

The 1995 World Cup is a perfect example of how a sport can bring a divided nation together, and the way in which these Touch rugby balls are forming bridges between various communities is no different.

  

Each ball costs R50, with R30 of that going directly back into the community and the balance contributing to Live’s operating costs.

This article first appeared in Weekend Vibe in The Citizen on Saturday 24 September 2011.

For more information and for dates of Touch clean up days (where plastic for the innards of the balls is collected, followed by lessons on how to play touch rugby), visit The Touch Initiative on Facebook. To order balls, e-mail hosia@winwin.co.za or call 072-288-9088.