THE IRISH RUGBY TEAM & SoHK TEAM UP TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALEXANDRA

SoHK is proud to announce it’s combined efforts with The Irish Rugby Team in making a change in the youth of Alexandra. The stars of Ireland have taken a pause from their preparation for the first test against South Africa to team up with SoHK in developing the youth of the Alex Wolves & Queens High rugby clubs through the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ programme that is supported by the Irish Embassy in Pretoria.

Alexandra, Johannesburg

The town of Alexandra, in Johannesburg, is stricken with poverty. Most of its population is underprivileged and live on a day-to-day basis. It is also near to training grounds at which the The Irish Rugby Team are preparing for their first test against South Africa.

The Team-Up

SoHK and The Irish Rugby Team hosted a once-off session where the two U19 teams were brought together to the training grounds of the Irish Rugby team where they enjoyed their time with some fun and games before receiving some tough training from the Irish players. After powering through this task the young players were given the space to find out more about the Irish players and their lives.

One of the youngsters from the township asked, “What do you do when you are feeling down?” Which was a perfect segway to discuss a bit about mental health, without stigma. Many of the players could talk about to how mental health affects them as rugby players and their goals in life. The youngsters could see, that mental health is something that is important and could be spoken about.

Feedback

“The kids can’t stop talking about the event.”

“They aren’t just excited about the Irish that they met but they were also excited about the School of Hard Knocks and what we brought to them as they’ve never had the platform to kind of to speak about this.”

“We and the coaches of the teams feel like the mental health session was really something that they needed but also the whole experience was a great experience for the teams.”