A vision for young boxers

Written by Editor Friday, 23 October 2009 13:33

ZDDT interviews former Light Heavy Weight Boxing Champion Mr. Sidney Green and discovers a vision to get as many young Zimbabweans off the streets as possible.


The Zimbabwe Development Democracy Trust (ZDDT) Media Officer, Mr. Swithern Chirowodza, interviewed Zimbabwe’s former Light Heavy Weight Boxing Champion Mr. Sidney Green.

The boxer runs a poorly equipped sports club in Bulawayo called ‘Young Arts Boxing Club’. It is surprising to note that although the stable has barely any equipment, it has produced two youngsters who currently hold national boxing titles. The Question and Answer session went as follows:

Pic: Young Arts Boxing club looks to expand and get more youngsters off Bulawayo's streets.

Q: Mr. Green what is your vision for Young Arts Boxing Club?

A: Our vision is to take as many youths as possible off the streets and get them active in sport in order to teach them discipline. We want to teach them the dangers of drug abuse and get them into a good physical and mental frame of mind. Last but not least, we want the young ones to be able to see that anything is possible if they put their minds to it.
 
Q: How is Young Arts Boxing Club helping with the issue of substance abuse?

A: We try and instill discipline in the youth. We tell them about the dangers of drugs, hard drugs and glue that you usually find the kids of today sniffing. Substance abuse also falls into this category. We teach them all the side effects. We tell them the dangers that go with substance abuse and encourage them never to try it.

Q: What are you doing about the many youngsters who roam or take to the streets?

A: As I said, part of our vision is to get as many of the youths of today off the streets as possible. We go around and speak to them and we have managed to bring quite a few of them to our gym. I am happy to say that there is a marked improvement in attitudes among those who have trained with us.

Q: What are you doing to realise this vision?

A: We have three coaches who train these youngsters and they do it from the goodness of their hearts. Without paying for anything, we have taken many of the youngsters off the streets. We have made them active through training and got some jobs for a few of them. We have managed to win and take some of them away from the sniffing of glue. This to us is a very big problem. However, if we measured our success by the depth of our pockets, we can say that we have not won. It is impossible to accomplish all our goals without finance.  

Q: How many youths attend your training sessions?

A: All in all we have twenty youths. Our gym is small so we take four people per training session. We also have a shortage of equipment.

Q: Are there any people or organisations that are assisting you?

A: No, we have not received any assistance from any person or organisation.

Q: What successes have you recorded so far?

A: We have got two national champions under our belt. …Among our youths, we have six that we think have the potential to go far in this sport.

Q: Are there any failures worth noting?

A: Our major failure is that of finance. Due to lack of funds, we have been unable to purchase new equipment. Some of these “kids” do not even have training shoes to train with. We desperately require finance to be able to increase the number of youths we take in as well as expand our gym and purchase new equipment.

Q: How are you managing to produce champion boxers when your gym has such poor equipment?

A: We have managed to accomplish this because of the boxers’ determination and discipline. At that time we did not have as many senior and junior boxers as we do now. This makes us wonder what we [could] have accomplished if we had the resources available to us.

Q: What assistance are you looking for?

A: We are looking for assistance in the purchase of equipment, the expansion of our own gym, helping in the financing of our training camps and a volunteer to help get as many of the youths off the streets as possible.
    
Q: How can Zimbabwe benefit from Young Arts Boxing Club?

A: Zimbabwe can benefit [through] entertainment. …Future champions may with the grace of God put our countries on the map in the Boxing Federation. Most importantly Zimbabwe will benefit [through] youths who are disciplined and respectful. We must remove as many “kids” off the drug scene as possible.

Q: How can the Zimbabwe Development Democracy Trust (ZDDT) help in improving the Young Arts Boxing stable?

A: We would like you to use the influence of your good offices among donors to come to our rescue and assist our very worthy cause. Thanking you in advance.