During the visit TackleAfrica were able to pass on classroom supplies as well as football equipment which had been kindly brought over and donated by The Hawks, a football team who participate in Tackle Africa’s annual Football Marathon (under their continental banner Los Halcones).

Last week nine members of The Hawks, a team formed by colleagues at the Department of Education in the UK, flew out to visit Kenya and witness some of the work that TackleAfrica is doing on the ground. Their experiences and feedback will help to strengthen TackleAfrica’s approach, particularly with regard to monitoring and evaluation.

The Hawks are also setting up a Regional Football Marathon in Manchester. The event is set to take place on the 30^th June at Salford Sports Village. If you are interested in entering a team or helping out, visit http://tackleafrica.org/?p=2080

The Alive & Kicking Orphanage World Cup aimed to give 500 orphans and vulnerable children in the city of Lusaka access to organised football and netball competitions and at the same time provide life skills training and HIV/AIDS sensitisation. A series of mini leagues were held over a 6 month period and were followed by a World Cup style tournament running over two weeks and culminating in a thrilling final on August 28^th. During the mini-leagues, health awareness coaching sessions were conducted with participating teams.

A total of 450 footballs and netballs have been donated, over 500 children have received HIV/AIDS awareness, and 109 coaches and teachers have received training on how to disseminate HIV/AIDS awareness through sport. In a city where there are limited opportunities for the most vulnerable children to take part in organised sport, this project has been received with gratitude and smiles by children and their teachers and coaches alike.

TackleAfrica’s Ben Sadler, the Project Manager for the A&K Orphanage World Cup has a wealth of experience of organising tournaments around the world. He had the following to say:  

“The league competitions have been very well received. Hundreds of participants have competed and they have been joined by the local community who have come out to support and enjoy the sports on show. The players have not only embraced the competition element but also been open to building their HIV and AIDS knowledge.”

Samuel Sibanda, 17, a participant from Dream Runners Orphanage had his message for Alive & Kicking supporters across the globe,

“I would like to tell you all that we will not let you down because we are united. The league has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and has put smiles on the faces of me and all of my friends. We played well and meeting with different kinds of people made me happy because we cooperated and learnt from one another – lack of knowledge leads many people into bad decision making so the HIV games have helped us a lot”

The final event took place at the Zambian Olympic Youth Development Centre in August. The finals were spread over two weekends to ensure the traditional World Cup knock out format could be implemented. The venue offered safe and fun facilities including a state of the art artificial pitch which was a highlight for many of the participants.

William Kaluba, 15 from Emmasdale OVCs said “I have never seen a pitch like this before. We play in our compound on a small dirt pitch. This is so big and flat – All of the teams are saying the same thing, we all can’t wait to play”

40 teams took part in the event, 16 of which had participated in the regional leagues as the remaining six teams had other commitments. In total 782 participants (128 girls and 654 boys) played in both the netball and football tournaments, with support from 97 coaches, teachers and peer leaders as well as approximately 350 spectators.

Issac Kumwenda, a peer leader from Fountain of Hope Orphanage commented,

“This has been the best tournament we have ever participated in. We played in the regional league and since then I have never seen our boys so motivated. They have come to training every day in preparation for the finals and now they have played on the best pitch in Zambia – The tournament has given the boys hope and excitement – I just hope that an event like this can happen again, I have never seen so many teams play”

Since the event was called the World Cup, each team was given a country to represent. In the football competition, Kalingalinga OVCs won the title, representing Kenya and beating Germany in the final. In the netball, Fountain of Hope, representing Zambia, beat England to be crowned champions.

During the event, as part of Youth Week, participants had access to mobile Voluntary Counselling and Test Centres that were available for use at the Olympic Centre.

TackleAfrica’s work in Uganda focusses in two main areas – the urban slums of Kampala and the fishing communities around Lake Victoria.    The two areas have a vastly different feel and a hugely varied landscape, but both share an HIV prevalence rate that is significantly above the national average.

A recent visit by TackleAfrica coach educators Tom Colborne and Ben Sadler helped develop coaching capacity in both communities, as well as a momentous start in a third new region – the rural Semuto where the football and HIV community centre on 25 acres of TackleAfrica-owned land enjoyed its debut community event.

First was the Level 1.5 course in Kamwokya, Kampala, a refresher training and assessment for 20 coaches from across the country who are 6 months into their formal coach development programme.   Participants on the course included Majidah Majidah, coach of the Uganda national ladies team, and a number of coaches from amongst Kampala’s top club sides.   Between them the coaches work with almost 1,000 young people in their communities, delivering HIV education through football coaching on a regular basis. 

The 5 day course, facilitated by Tom, Ben and local project office Mpoza Dennis, covered theory sessions on intermediate football strategy, session planning and goalkeeping, as well as HIV focus group discussions on how the virus works, gender equality, why communities in Uganda are at risk and what we as coaches can do to support them.   The practical sessions allowed each coach to demonstrate what they had learned and further practise delivering HIV education through football coaching sessions.

The tournament at Semuto, organised by local partners Kamwokya Christian Caring Community in partnership with TackleAfrica and FUFA (the Federation of Uganda Football Associations) brought the local community together to launch the new site and engage with HIV testing facilities.    Over 300 young people played in the netball and football tournaments, with hundreds more spectating.   75 community members engaged with HIV testing and counselling services at the event in what was reognized by all as the first step in a significant programme of health through sport community work for 10,000 Semuto residents.

TackleAfrica also conducted follow up visits with coaches in Kampala and Ssenyi, near Lake Victoria, offering in-community support and coaching tips as part of the ongoing coach development programme,.   We were also able to meet with partners The Kids League and ASDHI to plan work for 2012 and beyond.  

In september 2010, TackleAfrica coaches Robbie Wood, Alistair Lyons and Tatyana Dimitrova ran a 2 week training and support programme for staff and volunteers of our project partner EMIMA near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.   The project was run in partnership with YES Tanzania, who just happened to have a professional photographer with them.

We hope you enjoy this gallery of incredible shots of our coaches and young beneficiaries in action.  Click on the first picture to open the gallery.

Forget Fernando Torres; TackleAfrica believe our January recruit Ndunda Mukonyo is the man to make a real difference.   Ndunda will work with TackleAfrica’s Kenyan partner Alive & Kicking to build and support our network of coaches delivering HIV education to tens of thousands of young people.    Ndunda is a retired professional footballer who grew up in and around one of Africa’s biggest urban slums, now a key target area for TackleAfrica’s HIV programmes in East Africa.  Coaching Development Manager Yianny Ioannou caught up with him in Nairobi to find out how Ndunda’s first month has gone.  

What did you know about TackleAfrica’s work in Kenya when you applied for the job?

Because I live in Mathare North I knew that MYSA (Mathare Youth Sports Association) were using football to educate on HIV. The first coach I saw from MYSA using football drills with HIV messages was wearing a TackleAfrica t-shirt so I knew there was another organisation training their coaches.

What attracted you to working with TackleAfrica?

After a volunteer training session I was sitting by the field when a village elder came over to me and said to me that there is an advertisement for a position in today’s newspaper which is for you, “please don’t fail to apply.” He was very optimistic for me, it was a mystical thing! What TackleAfrica were looking for is what I had been doing in my community already. I saw it as a learning opportunity to grow my horizons and a way to do more good work.

What are you most looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to helping TA succeed more in what they are doing, reaching more young people and improving skills and information in the slums in Nairobi. I came from these places that people call slums and that I call home.

How have you found the job so far?

I’ve been in the job for about 25 days now and already travelled to Uganda for a training course. I have been welcomed warmly by everyone at TackleAfrica and was given a very positive start. I’ve met so many people already and I see that the work is reaching very wide across Nairobi and to other areas of Kenya.

What impact do you think TackleAfrica’s work can have with young people in Kenya?

Great impact! TackleAfrica are targeting the right group of young people to work with and supporting the organisations which are working on the ground both established and growing.

What message do you have for TackleAfrica supporters?

Keep supporting TackleAfrica.  TackleAfrica’s popularity has led to people depending on the information and skills training and football has the power to bring people together for peace and progress. TackleAfrica can help to build a bridge between people across social conflicts.

Ndunda’s story so far:

Growing up

Born in Kiambu hospital Nairobi, minutes away from Mathare slum, one of Ndunda’s early ambitions was to become an architect and he inherited his grandfather’s talent at wood carving in the Kamba tradition.   A new passion began to emerge as Ndunda began playing football at an early age with footballs made from plastic bags, and joined MYSA’s programme aged 12.    His burgeoning footballing talents saw him compete in Scandinavia and Northern Europe for the MYSA Allstars aged 15, and his leadership skills and passion for helping others led to him being the first youth leader in the MYSA executive council a year later.

Professional football career

Ndunda signed for the Mathare United senior team, set up in Division 2 of the Kenyan league at age 19, before a switch to Premier League side Tusker FC in 1999.   Ndunda went on to win the Premier League twice with Tusker, coming off the bench to score the winning goal to clinch the Championship in the final game of his first season.   Ndunda went on to play for Thika United and ended his professional footballing career in Ethiopia with St George.   He has also represented Kenya at U20 and U23 level.

Football for development career

Realising the difference that football had made to his own life and its potential for helping others, Ndunda began coaching football as a volunteer in his local neighbourhood, before getting a job coaching school teams with German School Nairobi.   He studied Sports Science at Leipzig University and got his coaching badges before joining TackleAfrica in January 2011.

Keep an eye on our website for updates on Ndunda’s work in Kenya, and some very exciting upcoming partnership announcements