jaden Hoedemaker

He Grew Up There. Now He Takes the Kids Back Out. How a Men's Health athlete and his best friend are changing the way Cape Town's township children see their city — one run at a time. CAPE TOWN: On a Saturday morning in Sea Point, fifteen children from Samora Machel township laced up their running shoes. They didn't know where they were going. They didn't know what was waiting for them at the end. They ran. Sea Point gave way to Clifton. Clifton gave way to Camps Bay. The Atlantic Ocean stretched out beside them, closer than most of them had ever been to it. At the finish line, a fire was already burning. The braai had been set up by Jaden, a childhood friend of their running coach — a young Cape Town entrepreneur who'd driven ahead while the kids ran to have the coals ready when they arrived. Six kilograms of boerewors. Rolls. An afternoon with nowhere to be. The children ate. They swam. They stayed for hours. The video of that afternoon has now been watched more than 100,000 times. "You Are Not Where You Come From" The man who led that run is Nkosi Nsubmu. He is a Men's Health South Africa cover athlete, a runner, and a community figure — and he grew up in Samora Machel, the same township these children call home. That fact is not incidental. It is the entire point. “I had a godmother who used to take us hiking, to the beach, to Grand West to go ice skating. That's where I learned the importance of things like this. I had something to talk about. Something to look forward to. And there were kids in my neighbourhood who never got that opportunity — I could tell how much they needed it.”— Nkosi Nsubmu Nsubmu has been organising these outings for a small but growing group of children from his old neighbourhood. The first time, there were six kids. This time, fifteen. He expects thirty at the next one. By Heritage Day in September, he hopes for more than a hundred. The goal is straightforward, even if the impact is profound: take …