Strauss Lunyangwe
WINDHOEK- Former sprinter and netball player Yolanda Tjipuka and her husband Sydney Tjipuka, recently teamed up with friends to assistant a group of nine athletes that formed part of the team that represented Namibia at the recent Cossasa Athletics Championships in eSwatini.
The popular regional school’s athletics championships took place in the Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) a few weeks ago.
Yolanda and her husband initially helped a young female athlete from the Omusati Region after the team manager had pleaded with the public to help with donations in any form. The couple bought the young lady spikes but realized that more needed to be done than just running shoes.
This prompted them to reach out to their friends and family to get on board, which resulted in them helping six boys and three girls in total. Lucky enough, seven of the athletes brought back medals from the group they helped.
The total donation to the nine athletes amounted to N$20 450.00, which included spikes, sneakers, training gear, mineral water and some pocket money for some of the athletes.
The Tjipuka family believes that no child must suffer when there is a nation as large as Namibia that can help.
“We cannot criticise our athletes if we aren’t able to make a difference in their lives. If we want Namibia to produce more athletes who will put our country on the map, those who are in a position to make a difference need to pull together and make a difference in the lives and dreams of those athletes,’’ Yolanda emphasised.