Sports, Health & Wellness Day
The Manguzi Gijima is an annual mass-participation sports day centred on disability inclusion — featuring wheelchair athletics, health screening, and the famous MedBull challenge course.
About the eventManguzi, KwaZulu-Natal
Sport. Health. Inclusion.
The Gijima Foundation brings together over 2,000 participants — more than 40% of whom are people with disabilities — for an annual celebration of ability, community, and change in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
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2,000+
Annual participants
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40%+
People with disabilities
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150
Wheelchair athletes (2025)
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84
Volunteers (2025)
What We Do
Three interconnected programmes, one goal: meaningful inclusion for people with disabilities in rural South Africa.
Disability Advocacy Workshops
A pre-event workshop where local DPOs, civil society, government and community members come together to raise issues, track progress, and hold systems accountable.
Workshop impactCommunity Projects
From wheelchair-accessible school ramps to scholar transport solutions, we turn workshop discussions into real-world change — one project at a time.
View projectsOur Story
From 42 participants to 2,000+
Manguzi Gijima started as a small community sports day organised by the local Manguzi Hospital rehabilitation and dietetics team — 36 runners and 6 wheelchair users, held to encourage healthy lifestyles and disability visibility.
Today, it draws close to 2,000 participants from across the region, including competitors from Mozambique and Swaziland — of whom more than 40% are people with a wide variety of disabilities. It has become one of South Africa's most remarkable grassroots disability inclusion events.
What hasn't changed is the spirit: civil society, government, traditional leadership, and business working together to change attitudes, drive inclusive practice, and build stronger community networks.
Learn about us
Real Change
Impact Stories
The Gijima Foundation turns community conversations into lasting results.
From bed-bound to competitor
A community member who could not access tertiary care now competes in Gijima wheelchair events — after our advocacy unlocked the operative intervention he needed.
Independent school access
A young wheelchair user whose mother carried her 6km through sand daily now travels to school independently, after a Backabuddy campaign procured a 4x4 Segway wheelchair.
School ramps built
The Gijima Foundation has constructed modular wheelchair-access ramps at 3 schools in 2026, with a fourth pending enrolment outcomes — directly funded after advocacy with the DBE.
Make a Difference Today
Change starts with people like you. Your donation helps transport people with disabilities to the event, fund health screening, and keep this community together.
Donate Now