Today I headed off to Nega Nega – a rural area around an hour from Maz - where I handed out all the Watford footy shirts that my brother in law had managed to get for me from the Club. To back track a bit, I had written to the Club a few months ago requesting any football kit that they could spare and when Mum and Dad came out for their visit they brought with them a number of red, and white, training tops. I then spoke with one of our HIV and AIDS stakeholders, a local NGO called Peoples’ Action Forum (PAF - http://www.paf.org.zm/), and through their friendly Mazabuka project coordinator Janet, who I get on with very well, we organised a mini sports tournament in Nega Nega.
The tournament was between two schools from the villages called Nega Nega and Manyonyo and involved games of football for the boys and netball for the girls - with some fierce local rivalry thrown in, especially from the boys. The ages of the boys and girls were approximately between 13 and 17 years. Sport, and tournaments like the one that we organised, are important because sport is often used to bring youths together which is not always easy to do and to then discuss issues and problems related to topics such as HIV and AIDS. So after the boys and girls had finished playing we ran a number of sensitisation sessions talking about HIV and AIDS, STIs, teenage pregnancies and sexual relationships. 109 youths (61 boys and 49 girls) took part in these sessions. We also handed out some literature for further reading on the same topics. Some drinks and snacks were given out and lastly the winning boys and girls teams were presented with the Watford shirts; and they seemed pretty happy with them too.
So now a little part of Zambia has some youths proudly running around in WFC shirts. Even if only a small number of the youths present act on the messages given out on HIV and AIDS then the event will have been a success. Many thanks to the Club for the shirts and I am hoping to get some more to organise another tournament soon.
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