Health literacy among school age youth cricket players in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Abstract

There are many ways to keep the memory of the late first African President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela alive and make a difference in the lives of communities. University of South Africa has a time to serve to inspire the communities. With regard to education and literacy, the university leads by example. College of Human Sciences Health Literacy Project is a community based initiative whose primary aim is that of empowering school age youth cricket players by providing health literacy shows to schools, sports clubs centers and public venues. The project aims to improve physical health of youth through sporting activity of cricket training to learners in the local schools of the Province. The study employed a qualitative research approach to explore the views and roles of cricket youth players with regard to health literacy. Three focus group discussions were conducted with 15 to 20 participants. The age of the participants ranged from seven to 18 years. All the participants were learners and residing with their parents. Youth expressed their views and roles with regard to health literacy in different ways. A theme with three sub-themes emerged from thematic content analysis of the collected data as awareness of basic health information, prevention of risky behaviours, studying further and the importance of nature conservation.

Keywords: Age, cricket, health, literacy, players, school, youth