Sport for development and peace

A Sport for Development & Peace Festival was hosted on 15 March in Katutura with just over 100 children participating. 

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) is an annual celebration of the power of sport to drive social change, community development and to foster peace and understanding.

On Friday, the Basketball Artists School, NFA’s Galz & Goals, and SCORE Namibia, supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development hosted a multi-sports event, including activities for positive youth development, education and adoption of a Healthy Lifestyle.

The festival took place at the Multi-Purpose Youth Resource Centre in Katutura. It was a great success to demonstrate the power of sports by playing adapted sport games integrating life skills, information on sexual reproductive health, substance abuse, common diseases and road safety. The festival is part of the German weeks which were taking place from 22 February to 17 March and was organised by the German Embassy in Windhoek.

The full-day event reached the capacity of 102 registered participants from eight government schools in Katutura, who were between 12 and 15 years old. 

The 10 youth teams competed in mixed basketball and mixed football games, with the rules being transformed to integrate life skills education and healthy lifestyle themes into the game.

After each game, the Sport for Development (S4D) instructors conducted a conversation with the participants to reflect on what they had learnt from the matches, both on and off the field of play.

Furthermore, each team had to pay a visit to the fun and active life skills games station. The final competition for each team was a 4x100m relay race, where each team had to provide two girls and two boys as runners. By mixing the teams with boys and girls the hosts encouraged gender equality.

The partner organisations EduVentures, the Financial Literacy Initiative (FLI) and Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA) offered specialised information services about protecting our environment, financial wellness and counselling about sexual and reproductive health to equip the youth with knowledge and tools to make healthy lifestyle choices.

The participants were very excited and felt special on the day that started with a dance performance by OYO, addressing Gender Based Violence during their drama dance, and ended with a surprise performance by Oteya.

“If we do not educate these children about health, the environment and other life skills or keep them engaged in leisure time activities such as sports, they would otherwise be in danger of becoming another victim of their circumstances. Overall the festival was tremendously successful, and the kids were very happy and enjoyed their day,” the organisers said in a press statement.