Support Zimbabwe’s Bantu Rovers: the club with style and a social conscience.

The Bantu Rovers, a club based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, made the long trip to the United States last week. Their U-19 squad has been competing alongside the likes of Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain’s youth clubs in the prestigious Dallas Cup, the United States’s oldest international youth soccer tournament. While Bantu are the first Zimbabwean team to ever compete in the tournament, they’re unique for a different reason. Not to focus on clichés, but they really are more than a club. You see, they have an active social mission to help surrounding communities prevent the spread of HIV, which still plagues sub-Saharan Africa.

Alright, here’s how the club is set up:

The Bantu Rovers are closely tied to Grassroot Soccer (GRS), an international NGO that uses the power of soccer to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa by empowering young people with the skills and knowledge to make life saving decisions.
Bantu’s founder and president is Methembe Ndlovu, one of the founders of GRS. Ndlovu, a native of Bulawayo, attended Dartmouth College in the U.S., played for Highlanders FC (a top Zimbabwean pro team) and went on to captain the Zimbabwean Men’s National Team.
Ndlovu currently directs all of GRS’s programs in Zimbabwe.
“Our players are role models in their communities; the younger kids look up to them,” said Ndlovu. “We have decided to leverage that by using the language of soccer to break down barriers, build trust, and educate young people to adopt healthy behaviors.”
To accomplish this mission, Bantu players serve as GRS Coaches, HIV educators that implement the GRS curriculum to young people.

The club wanted to show that the beautiful game is flourishing in Zimbabwe, and that soccer can be an unbelievably powerful tool for transforming lives. That’s exactly what this young side have proved over the last few days. The group stage of the tournament is over, and the Bantu youngsters have been scoring freely. With two wins and nine goals (including this beautiful volley), Bantu progressed to the quarterfinals, where they will face CZ elite, one of the best clubs in Southern California.

It’s hard to stay objective when Bantu are enjoying themselves on the pitch and doing so much for their community. So if you need a Zimbabwean club to support, join us in supporting the Rovers!