2023 is starting off on the right foot... no pun intended. The team in Cameroon, working closely with community leaders and coaches, have planned a boys' tournament that focuses on PREVENTING VIOLENCE EXTREMISM, BUILDING SOCIAL COHESION, AND PROMOTING PEACE IN THE COMMUNITY.
Curriculum has been developed and coaches trained. Evaluation tools created. Screening of players has commenced. Awareness across town has been built up. And now it's time for kick off!
8 teams will participate in the tournament that will take place over the next two months to engage youth in positive activities amidst the civil unrest in Anglophone Cameroon, which has been going more severely since 2016. Every year on Feb 11th, the nation of Cameroon celebrates Youth Day. There's controversy around the national holiday nowadays, but that is even more a reason why this tournament is important and the theme for conversations and awareness-building is just as important!
Despite the unrest and instability, the Kumba team continues to host these important Soccer + Life Skills programs for youth. After the boys' tournament, the girls will play over the summer holiday.
Since 2010, we've been organizing and hosting educational soccer competitions for hundreds of youth in Cameroon with the support of the GlobalGiving community. We appreciate your consistent support and look forward to sharing more updates after the tournament!
2022 has been a year of transition for our programming in Cameroon. After hosting the Super Cup in Kumba, bringing together champions from all of our community leagues, we hosted girls empowerment workshops and the U-17 Summer Holiday tournament. We know how important these programs are to youth because they are already asking what is next?
Our staff have continued to expand their leadership roles and are now shaping youth soccer at the neighborhood, divisional, regional, and national level. Coach Kingsley has taken his girls team to the top division in the South West Region. Divine, Caroline, and Nenne all hold executive positions in their neighborhood Veteran Clubs. Community leaders and club coaches across Kumba continue to stay connected to the office for training and resources to improve their coaching of players as student athletes and global citizens.
Looking to 2023, we intend to expand our community-centered educational soccer tournaments for both boys and girls in Kumba. We will continue to host the U-17 tournament for young men and add a brand new tournament for girls and young women in the spring.
So, we're asking for your help to reach our fundraising goal in the next few months and cover costs for both events next year. When we hit our goal of $35K, we will be able to achieve this vision we set out so many years ago!
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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.
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:
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:
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.
Open Field encourages youth to take ownership of a project in their community to teach leadership and civic engagement. Community leaders and coach mentors take on an advisory role, while the Youth Councilors, elected by their peers to represent their neighborhood, propose a project to make an impact.
12 neighborhoods are engaged in this process in Kumba. We wanted to show you what a proposal looks like from one neighborhood. How and Why the youth chose their project and the process. As you are well aware by now, Open Field is a lot more than football/soccer. We're sharing the proposal for Fiango, one of the roughest areas in Kumba.
COMMUNITY SERVICE PROPOSAL
COMMUNITY: FIANGO
Mulango Street Fiango
Cleaning of piled up refuse at the end of the street.
To provide a pleasant breathing environment for residents, and stop the breeding of mosquitoes.
Encourage residents to keep their environments clean, proper hygiene leads to good health.
The quarter head (neighborhood elder and leader) has promised to provide working tools.
26th February 8am to 10am
So this weekend, the project is on. Enjoy some photos last years project in this community - a road clearing and maintenance (with stones) project.
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