The Kaizer Chiefs supporters club branch in Umtata in the Eastern Cape have over the past year embarked on a number of social responsibility projects within the community that they exist in. One of their most recent social programmes lead them to discover a fourteen year old boy by the name of Azola Dabula who was recently orphaned, with the passing away of his sole surviving parent and the boy has had to fend for himself.

Without wasting much time, the branch members decided to adopt the boy and have assisted in finding him a stable living environment as well as providing for his education and other social needs.

Being proactive

Kaizer Chiefs supporters relations manager Cecil Motaung has commended the Umtata branch for taking a leading role in community actives in their region.

“We generally encourage our branches to be on good terms with the wider community where they come from, and also for them to get involved in community relations initiatives. For the members of the Umtata branch to take it upon themselves to bring Azola into their lives is a really blessed deed, they have given a boy who seemingly had nothing to look forward to in life a whole lot of reasons to be positive about his future.”

Azola part of the Chiefs family

While it was their spreading of the clubs motto of 'love and peace' that the Umtata supporter’s club branch came across Azola, they inducted him into the Kaizer Chiefs family by brining him to Gauteng for Chiefs' recent Telkom Cup match against Moroka Swallows.

A wide eyed Dabula thoroughly enjoyed his maiden journey out of the Eastern Cape, as a spokesperson for the branch adds it was a life-changing experience for the 14 year old.

“It was the first time ever that the boy had left the Eastern Cape and he was amazed at what he saw in Tshwane and Johannesburg, and it was also the first time that he had attended a live Chiefs game. As a branch it took a lot of team work for us to get together and help change this boy's life for the better, and we hope that by practicing love and peace we can help change many more lives.”