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PORTABLE CONTAINER GYMS WILL EXTEND ACCESS TO EXERCISE AND PHYSICAL FITNESS FOR RURAL FOLK,AS WELL AS OFFER BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
STAFF REPORTER
ACCESS to physical fitness exercise is a basic human right that should be extended to all, including communities in rural areas, where “there’s nothing but starkness”.
This was the philosophy that inspired the formation of the Gym In A Box (GIAB) Foundation based in Musgrave, Durban, and the development of its portable, shipping container “gyms in a box”.
The organisation hopes one day the gyms will spread all over the country and make South Africans stronger and healthier, while providing small business operators with opportunities to start and run their own businesses, and big companies with a chance to extend their corporate social investment (CSI) and advertisement programmes.
The project was launched recently at the Morningside Sports Club, where a group of fitness instructors and facilitators, who call themselves the Zulu Transformers, demonstrated in front of guests that included one of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s daughters, the kind of exercises possible at the two-container park gym set up on the lawns next to the sport centre’s changerooms.
It has everything one would expect at a standard gym where members pay hundreds of rand per month. And all the equipment can be locked up inside when the gym closes.
Princess Ntandoyesizwe, who was the main speaker at the launch, and is one of the directors of the foundation, said the GIAB foundation was founded on the basis that there was a gap between people who could and those who could not afford to join regular gyms and health fitness centres.
Extolling the virtues of physical exercise and calling on businesses and all who had the means to invest in this initiative, the princess said as a foundation they wanted to see sport and physical exercise becoming more and more a part of people’s lives. They would like container gyms in every community and school throughout South Africa, starting with Kwazulu-natal.
“Can you imagine what it would be like if there were more facilities, and fitness and wellbeing (centres) of these kinds in all our communities?”
She said the spin-offs would be healthier and stronger members of communities, with increased selfesteem and sense of identity. This, she said, would help reduce violence, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and obesity, which research indicated affected about 70% of women in South Africa.
She said physical activity and sport would open avenues for community members for more “positive behaviour”.
Exercise also helped build a strong immune system, which led to reduced healthcare costs for individuals and communities, she said.
Success and failure were both part of life, and people who played sport from early stages were empowered to handle these experiences more appropriately. Sport teaches one how to handle competition, how to overcome adversities in life and how to achieve one’s goals, she said.
The founder and director of the non-profit organisation, Hayley Cassim, said she was moved by the “starkness” she saw in rural areas, where kids played with such things as old tyres, scrap metal and ropes.
“I believe it should be a basic human right to exercise and (get) the opportunity to be healthy, as opposed to only a few, privileged people having gyms in the city, whereas out in the rural areas there’s absolutely nothing,” she said.
Cassim, a fitness specialist with 26 years in the industry, said the inspiration came from what she saw in rural areas.
She said she then had the idea that scrap metal, shipping containers and other items could be recycled to provide affordable exercise centres.
“Give kids in a rural area a soccer ball. They will play soccer until they’re brilliant at it. So if you give them a ship’s rope or a piece of rubber band they will do something with it. They will do something until they’re brilliant at it.”
Explaining how she came up with the box gym concept, Cassim said: “So I just thought to myself: if you recycled all that, it makes brilliant training equipment. You don’t need fancy equipment where one treadmill can cost (the same as) a whole shipping container, plus the gym equipment. So I thought recycle this, store it in a shipping container – it’s lock up and go; you can take it anywhere; it’s completely portable – and leave it at a school. And if you put the model together correctly, the corporates can use it as their CSI, enterprise development, advertising. The kids benefit with a gym at school; and your enterprise development individual who is there oversees (it) with the kids, and they run their own business.”
The park gym in Morningside was erected in January this year when they started rolling out the concept.
The Mediterranean Shipping Company has come on board to support the foundation as part of its corporate social investment programme. Some big companies were considering franchising with the foundation to improve their staff wellness, while deals are being concluded with “quite a few” budding entrepreneurs, who were looking at starting their own gyms.
Designed to suit individual needs, the gyms can accommodate up to 60 people exercising at one point.
The foundation also offers support, training and mentorship to the business owners, including a course in English and isizulu.
The container gyms come in various sizes starting from a playground-type one for juniors at a cost of R180 000, up to the top-of-therange “beast box” for the “tuff and buff” which requires an investment of R300 000.
The GIAB foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation set up last year to work with other organisations and the corporate sector towards the improvement of physical health and awareness of the benefits to all communities of South Africa. Its aims are to promote a healthier South Africa, provide community-based, fitness-related business opportunities for emergingand micro-business operators, as well as improve employee wellness through fitness for major companies.
Call 083 556 0434 or e-mail: info@ gyminaboxsa.co.za.