The Human’s Rights organisation People, Against, Suffering, Suppressing, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) held a mini netball tournament at Langa Sports Complex on Saturday 11 March to build friendship and unity among African migrants.
PASSOP, based in the Cape Town CBD, is a non-government organisation (NGO) that fights for human rights for African migrants.
Three teams participated in the competition.
PASSOP project manager Wilson Tarusarira said they aim to empower migrants and refugees through activities, community participation, integration and education. The struggle for migrants and refugees was a global one and they seek to build international solidarity around issues affecting migration, documentation and refugee rights.
“Within PASSOP, we have some people who are having challenges like Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer + (LGBTQIA+) community refugees and people living with disability. So, this event is solely to integrate refugees who are from LGBTQIA+ community refugees to the local community of Langa. That is why we have a team from Langa and another team from Khayelitsha,” he said.
Tarusarira said many LGBTQIA+ community members have a challenge of being discriminated in their communities. He said their next tournament will be in Khayelitsha next year.
“We started this tournament last year and we were here in Langa. We are here again, but next year we will move to Khayelitsha,” he explained.
Langa resident Bulie Vani described the tournament as a great initiative to create peace and stability in the communities.
“If we can continue with such initiatives xenophobic and LGBTQIA+ community attacks can end. We need to unite and love each other. There is no reason to hate someone because of his or her sexual orientation,” said Vani.
Teams that took part in the tournament were Hurricane (Langa), Old Joy (Khayelitsha) and Ever Love (PASSOP).
