AIDS in Africa education thought soccer

Coverage
The project continues to expand in order to reach the peripheries of the entire District.

Training
Four trainings are planned for 100 coaches during the period September to December 2009, following the series of successful trainings in Mepuagiua, Lioma and Sede where 57 new coaches were trained using the “Craque!” manual.

League games
The first phase of league games is almost complete. The league games started off with a total of 65 teams- a mixture of boys and girls, who took part in the “eliminator”games. The finals will take place in Gurué central in September 2009.
The experience gained and lessons learned by both the project staff and coaches in organizing and implementing this first league phase will provide a strong foundation upon which to embark on the second phase of league games, planned for the school holiday period (between December 2009 and January 2010).

Partnerhsips
The project has established some strategic partnerships with the local government (Gurué) Municipality, the Ministry of Education, the local community radio, the District Hospital and the local communities.
The “President” of the Municipality provided a truck with driver, to ferry the project’s materials (balls and boundary markers, etc) from Nampevo (125km away) to the Foundation’s Gurué Office, free of charge. The Foundation was only required to provide fuel for the truck.
The President of the Municipality is also the President of the Sports Commission. The project will explore ways to strengthen meaningful collaboration and resource mobilization and sharing with the local government and the Sports Commission.
The Ministry of Education has collaborated with the Foundation by providing the Culture House venue for free during training sessions with coaches. Physical activity is vital to the holistic development of young people, fostering their physical, social and emotional health. Within schools, physical education is an essential component of quality education. The Foundation is therefore playing a positive and fundamental role in improving the quality of education for the marginalized youth, through the strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education.
The local community radio always gives an account of the Foundation’s highlights during the weekly sports program. This publicity helps to raise the Foundation’s profile in the District.
Through an arrangement with one of the doctors, HIV positive children are referred to the DDV program for physical, emotional and psychosocial benefits. These children are integrated into the program without stigma or discrimination.
The local communities can always be counted on to clear football fields and to allow and encourage the children to participate in the sport for development program. The community leaders are invited to attend the league games and they bless the events with their presence.

Skills
There is still a lot to be done with the existing polos in order to improve the technical, life and organization skills components. For example most of the young players still need to pass the ball and kick the habit of monopolizing the ball, with just one player kicking the ball hard from one end of the field to the other. The project staff and coaches will strive to find effective methods to discuss STI (including HIV) prevention and raise the self esteem among the participating children.

Volunteer motivation
Another area that needs to be reinforced is the volunteer motivation. The “rewards”, or points system for the coaches has been developed as a way of motivating them to maintain frequent contact and implement sporting and life skills activities with the children. The project team is finding ways to fine tune this points system.
Most of the coaches gave the feedback that lack of balls and other “materials” causes lack of interest among them and the children.
The Gurué office recently received a consignment of soccer balls and field boundary markers. This will go a long way in maintaining interest among the children and the coaches. They do not show up for training.
Creating “Craques”!
The DDV project is instrumental in creating better citizens by developing positive attitudes, individual and collective technical skills and strategies/plans for the participating children within their respective teams and communities.

Pictures:

• Youth participantes from Lioma in Gurue District. (JPG)
• Mixed team of players at Polo 1 in Gurue town. (JPG)
• Girls training in polo. (JPG)