Lord Mawhinney, Honorary President of The Football League, this weekend opened a new community sports centre in Mbekweni, South Africa designed to provide a safe and secure environment for young people to enjoy sport throughout the year.

Together with African charity SCORE, UK based charity Hope Through Action has worked in the township located near Cape Town to the develop the centre in a community where there are high incidences of HIV/AIDs and 40,000 residents live below the poverty line.

Equipped with a third generation artificial pitch, training rooms, changing rooms and seating for 400 people, the centre also includes facilities for coaching netball and volleyball whilst a partnership with Saracens Rugby Club will provide world class rugby coaching.

"Today we have dedicated this centre to the young people of Mbekweni," said Lord Mawhinney on opening the centre on Saturday, June 12. "Throughout the world, the provision of quality football facilities has a huge impact on health, community pride and crime reduction.

"I have no doubt that the building of this new sports centre for the young people of the township will have a similarly positive impact locally. I congratulate Hope Through Action team on what they have achieved."

And alongside the sporting opportunities it provides, the centre - which was partly funded by money raised at last season's Carling Cup Final - is integrated with a number of sustainable development programmes addressing health, welfare, business development, sports excellence and leadership.

The need for the centre was identified by the community following the successful partnership which built the Nompumelelo Educare Centre in the township.

Philip Green, patron of the charity Hope Through Action added: "Today marks the culmination of three years work and I am delighted that we have been able to bring resources from around the world to provide this facility for the young people of Mbekweni.

"It is a natural development from our work with the Nompumelelo Educare Centre and with the opening of this new centre we can provide world class facilities for children and young people from a very early age through to becoming adults".

The site itself is located in Paarl, around 38 miles east of Cape Town on the tip of the African continent. And local businessman, Dale Fobian, who has been involved in the project from the start, expressed his delight at the opening of the centre.

"Hope Through Action has worked with community leaders and local schools, in particular the Desmond Tutu Senior Secondary School, to design a facility to meet the needs of young people of all abilities and backgrounds," he said. "Today we are delighted to see the results of that co-operation".

SCORE brings an enormous amount of experience to the project and has already started working with the young people. Claire Barrell, SCORE's area co-ordinator said: "In order to get the community ready for the launch of the facility, activities such as volleyball in the high schools, girl's football in the primary schools and a number of workshops focused on empowering community youth with leadership and life-skills have been held.

"The launch has seen mixed gender teams from each school in Mbekweni, as well as community clubs compete in mixed 5-aside football, netball and volleyball. With the 2010 World Cup and the facility launch, Mbekweni community has double reason to be excited".

Phil Bland, Chairman of the charity, recognised the part played in the project by the Project Manager, Architect and Contractor and local leaders by saying: "We have been impressed by the level of commitment brought to this project by all the technical team involved, and to complete such a project on time and to budget is a mark of the professionalism and skills of the team.

"I also want to pay tribute to the part played by Drakenstein Municipality, Western Cape Government and the Governing Body of the Desmond Tutu Senior High School in making the land available and assisting in the project design".

For more information please visit www.hopethroughaction.com