HUNDREDS of South Africans, young and old, wait patiently at a sports ground in Delft Township. Many of the children play in bare feet and others turn out in torn clothes.

All of them are ecstatic when their football coaches emerge in South Nottingham College kits and gather feverishly around the students.

This is the essence of Balls To Poverty.

A total of 32 young people – including footballers and rugby players from South Nottingham College and Nottingham Rugby Academy – coach groups of children from Cape Town's townships.

Female students on the tour – who provide physiotherapy for those playing in the Metropolitan Premier Youth Cup – are also given coaching duties.

There are also two members of Unity – a programme which breaks down territorial rivalries within inner-city Nottingham.

The party come from many different backgrounds but all are united in their task this morning.

Delft – an urban housing project built during the apartheid era and home to 250,000 people – is the first of six townships that will receive coaching.

South Nottingham College's Joe Sargison, Balls To Poverty founder, has been preparing his students for months for this moment.

"This is where it begins for the students in terms of developing them as positive role models and taking them out of their comfort zones," he said.

"They have been prepared for this by coaching in schools back in Nottingham and Notts, but now they have to step up a little bit more. There may be language barriers and other aspects that they have to overcome to deliver the best coaching session of their lives.

"Already we are starting to see the group work together as a team, and becoming more rounded individuals as a result."

The coaching sessions see young people from the Balls To Poverty party split up into pairs and train groups of between 15 and 20.

Student Dane Rawson, 18, of Wollaton, said: "The coaching was a great experience, I have never been put in a situation like that before.

"The young children were waiting for us to deliver, and I think we all did very well.

"We seemed to have such an importance in their lives, because they were so focused on us and they were so keen to get involved.

"It made me think differently about coaching, and made me enjoy it a lot more."

The students work in grids, and are watched by Julian Bennett, of Nottingham Forest.

This year, the 24-year-old defender has been unable to play because of injury and has accompanied the party to offer advice for the budding coaches.

"It's so great to see the young children's faces when they start to train, they love it," he said.

The presence of a professional footballer also helps to inspire and motivate the children from the townships.

It is through this coaching model that the Balls To Poverty achieves its dual aim – life and coaching skills are developed by students and Unity's young people, while township children are given a sporting experience which can help to change lives.

Boebie Cassiem is Balls To Poverty's partner in Cape Town and chaperones the party into the townships – areas where unemployment, crime and teenage pregnancy is high, combined with a lack of education.

He said: "By showing our youngsters an alternative to gangsterism in the townships and showing them people they can aspire to, it can really make a difference.

"It is also about breaking down barriers between people – it's much more than just giving a ball to a youngster in a township, it is showing them that people of all races can work together,"

Through his Stepping Stones project, Mr Cassiem can continue the coaching network which can help guide Cape Town's young people into education and positive interaction with peers.

The football and rugby balls that are distributed through Balls To Poverty also help.

The programme has seen 22,000 balls distributed in 28 townships in the last five years.

Sponsored by Unite, a total of 102 young people have coached in the country and up to 500,000 South Africans have been reached through sport, according to Government figures.

This year's Balls To Poverty party has also included rugby players from the college and Nottingham Rugby's academy.

Nottingham Rugby prop Neil Fowkes and Nottingham Rugby Academy director, John Widdowson, accompanied their promising players. The Balls To Poverty party also visited Guguletu, Mitchell's Plain, Heideveld, Manenberg and Bonteheuwel townships.

At the end of each coaching session the Balls To Poverty party is treated to a musical finale.

Deflt's local band turned out and a dance troupe entertained in Guguletu.

Training in some of Cape Town's poorest townships is just one of the tasks during this years Balls To Poverty programme. So far, the party has visited Transkei, in the Eastern Cape, and helped build football pitches and bridges.

They have also visited Nelson Mandela's birthplace and learnt about civil rights activist Steve Biko.

They then returned to Cape Town to visit Robben Island – the site of the prison which held Mandela captive.

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk