Football for an Education!!

January 6th, 2008 by mas | Filed under Africa & Overseas, Society & Issues.

Kondwani

I mentioned in my previous blog that towards the end of our time in Malawi we were approached by Kondwani Banda who gave us an update on the work he’s been doing to develop the ‘YoMo All Stars’ football team.

Kondwani works as a non teaching member of staff at the International School in Zomba. He befriended us during our first stay in Malawi

when we did some work with children at the International School and from nearby local schools. Since then he’s also assisted us in sourcing a woodcarver for ‘YoMo keyrings’ and more recently some YoMo African Artwork which we use towards fundraising for the work we support out there.

Back in January Kondwani approached us to ask if we would donate a football to enable him to set up a football team. After we returned to the UK he sent us a letter to tell us about the team he had set up called the ‘YoMo Stars’……. “So to the first time, that ball has given me the power to establish the team known as YoMo stars”.

I returned to Malawi on my own in March and asked Kondwani how the team was doing. At this stage he said they’d had to stop because their ball had burst, so I traveled down to Blantyre (the nearest city) and bought several balls so that they could start up again.

Well since then he’s been busy and heres the most recent letter given to us last week………

“REASONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF YOMO ALL-STARS ZOMBA ( MALAWI)
I established YOMO ALL-STARS with the aim of keeping the young people of the area busy in order for them to be refrained from activities such as excessive beer drinking, smoking Indian hemp and other immoral acts that the youth to the deadly HIV which is eluding Africa and the whole world of potential people.
I came up with the idea when YOMO Group visited Malawi in February 2007, and assisted me with a football. before the groups Manager Mr Mas Simpson visited Malawi and donated to me soccer balls.
Currently the group has 21 members who are aged between 12 and 16 (sixteen) however a lot of members in “the group are challenged In a lot of ways due to the death of their parents as the members are orphans who lost thelr parents due to AIDS. the major challenge facing the members is school studies, as such I wish I could be bailing these children through a special programme that is if I can get assistance.
The special programme can be implemented after thorough assessment on the concerned children through their family members as well as village headmen of the area who will then recommend the concerned beneficiaries to us.

The concerned children shall be required to sit for YOMO English Examination before being enrolled onto the programme.
For the time being the group is running on a k20,000 (kwacha) an equivalent of 72 pound capital. With this money we buy second hand football boots and resell, the profit is then channeled towards the project
Currently the children are Just being given some basic necessities such as sugar, soap bathing & washing soap as the profits are not enough to foot their educational costs.
Yours truly, Kondwani Banda”

In Malawi only Primary Education is free. So in a very poor country only the (comparatively) wealthy can afford to send their children to Secondary School. Orphan children are at the very bottom of the pile in terms of opportunities and wealth, so Kondwani’s premise is to be able to make provision for those children who are unable to access Secondary Education to be able to do so. He’s keen to demonstrate that only the children who really need support and who are actually willing to put in the effort, get it.

Towards this he’s using the ‘YoMo English Examination’ (his creation not ours!), to test out the ability and dedication of children, along with consulting local people and families about childrens circumstances. So all very worthy and also very nice that he has attributed some of his inspiration back to us and we will of course seek to support his efforts on some level.

There is however a distinction I’d like to make here in why we would seek to support a project like this…….. A project in Nigeria (I forget which) made me think a great deal about the work undertaken throughout Africa by people and projects from the ‘developed’ world. The message that came from this project was frustration that the balance of support to African projects was wrong - so much emphasis is placed on helping the very poor that the (relatively) well off people/projects, the entrepreneurs, the educated people, get overlooked - and yet its precisely these people/projects that are needed if African societies are to help themselves.

Well I agree with this and it sits very well with our own changes in priorities for this year. We want to shift our efforts to support those people who can help children and young people. Rather than focusing directly on children and young people we want to focus on the people working with them so that they can be as effective as possible. Therefore for the YoMo All-Stars our real interest lies not with the children who make up the team, but with Kondwani as a local adult seeking to make a difference.

This morning I saw Gordon Brown emphasising the need to support education for children in Africa in a debate with Annie Lennox. Lennox rambled on about the need to do something about corruption (apparently she’s been ’singing for Africa?!’ - Is ’saving Africa’ the graveyard shift for past-it singers now?!). Over the last few years I’ve read endless theories about the cause of and how to solve ‘Africa’s problems’ and there’s only one thing I’m certain of - people have to be allowed to work out their own solutions. This doesn’t mean they can’t be supported and advised, but it does need people to want to do it for themselves - and theres no question that Africa has plenty of clever, motivated and talented people (I mean Africans not the huge community of NGO workers!).

I’ve attached the original letters from Kondwani below, plus the copy of his ‘YoMo English Examination’. We’ll work out the level of support we can provide to him over the next few weeks. We’ll also lobby on his behalf to English football teams and other relevant organisations. If you’re in any way interested in supporting Kondwani (either by helping write some appeal letters, marking future ‘exam papers’, or making a donation for a childs education) please contact us on info@yomo.co.uk