Soccer + Life Skills for Hundreds of Youth

Over the last couple of months, the Kumba team has been working tirelessly to continue programming and activities, as well as to ensure the smooth running of the Super Cup 2022. This monumental event brings together finalists from all implementation sites and is a grand annual event that everyone looks forward to.

Day one was centered on the educational activities highlighted by the Conference on Mental Health and Well-Being for all the finalists from all 11 communities, including some few guests. This conference took place at Community Development Conference hall. See the full program below:

DAY 1 - FRIDAY

8 - 8:30am - Check in and Registration of participants. Ashu

8:30 – 9am - Meditation Rev Tiengwe Enusa 

9am – 9.30 - Opening of the Conference by Country Director Peter Ngwane

9.30 -10am - First presentation, History of Open Field by Country Director

10am – 11am - Second presentation, Mental Health and Wellbeing.

• Session 1: Connect – Build Relationships 
• Session2: Being Physically Active 
• Session3: Learning New Skills 
• Session4: Giving to Others 
• Session5: Being Aware and Living in the Present 

11am – 11:30am - Third Presentation Leadership for Community Service. Kingsley

11:30am – 12 - Questions and Answer sessions

12am -1pm - Coffee Break

1pm – 1:45pm - First Aid (Red Cross Facilitator)

1:45 – 2:15pm - Impact of Community Service. Adolf

2:15 – 2:45pm - Modalities and Conduct of the Super Cup (Wallace)

2:45 – 3:30 - Lunch

3:30 – 3.40 - Reading of Conference Resolutions

5pm – 5:30pm - Closing Remarks

DAY 2 - SATURDAY

7:30am - 8 am - Arrival of respective Teams/ Officials

8am – 8:30am - March pass (parade) of Respective Delegations

8:30am – 9am - Singing of the National Anthem

Speeches

Photographs/Interviews

9:30am - Kickoff of Matches

1:30pm - Boys U12 Finals

2:30pm - Girls Finals

3:30pm - Boys U15 Finals

Award of Prizes/ Certificates

After the closing of activities in the field, attendees made their way to the Buea Town Grill for a small gala to celebrate and continue the enjoyments into the evening. There was space for the youth and their coaches to dance and reflect on the joyous occasion to combine life skills learn and and their favourite sport.

61 girls attended the first session. The theme of the event was #BreakTheBias and our target was United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all girls. The first workshop (March) started 3:30pm with arrival of girls and staff, followed by the registration of youth participants.

At 4pm, the first phase of the workshop was focused on the life skill: Making Gender Equality a priority in your daily life.The girls pledged the following:

• #PledgeToUseMyVoice
• #PledgeToChoose
• #PledgeToShare

The workshop was interwoven with the life skills and the games implemented simultaneously. At the end of each topic and game, questions were asked. 

Part two of the program was based on group work, participants were divided into three groups based on the pledges, and they were given 10mins to brainstorm on what they have learned. Leaders of both groups facilitated their group’s presentations and time was allocated for questions at the end of each presentation. 

 In May, 68 girls attended the second event in this series.This time we focused on three more pledges:

• #PledgeToChallenge
• #PledgeToInclude
• #PledgeToKnowMyRights

Women’s empowerment is not only to celebrate or advocate for career women. Women’s empowerment celebrates the fullness of ‘womanity’. That is, the opportunity for a woman, no matter where she is in the world, to be at liberty to choose, challenge, to be included and also to know her rights and who she wants to be and thrive: as a homemaker, a career woman or both – free from bias and stereotypes.  This was the main message we shared with the girls. We played games based on the curriculum and ask purposeful questions and answer that reflect the pledges to fight against Gender Bias.

 Part two of the workshop was based on boosting their confidence and self esteem, we shared them into 3 groups, with each pair representing a pledge, we had three volunteers from each group to read, it was very competitive and the group PledgeToChallenge emerged first with the best readers, we ended at 6pm with a group picture.