STOP POVERTY CUP AT MKINGA

 MKINGA FOOTBALL LEGUE ARTICLE

INTRODUCTION

YPM Tanzania in collaboration with other stakeholders in the community on last 28th & 29th October 2016 were at Mkinga district at Duga Maforoni ward almost 8km to Horohoro border, the border between Tanzania and Kenya in Tanga region.YPM initiated the football league which titled as STOP POVERT CUP, enhancing stop poverty campaign to community around Mkinga. The league took almost two months which are October and November.Actually, registered teams were 17 and among those it was only 11teams which confirmed to participate, whereby nine teams were from Tanzania and two teams from Kenya .Also the league offiaciated by Mkinga District Community Development Officer honourable Mr.Mfuko.

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Horohoro & Duga Maforoni in the final

On 3rd was the final stage and the final match played with famous teams which are  Horohoro Stars F.C vs Duga Maforoni F.C. Those two teams are very famous  teams in Mkinga district the thing which made funs to pay tention for the final match.It was a great match which attracted and motivate more funs. A big number of people attended final that final match including leaders from both two country i.e Tanzania & Kenya. However there were entertaiments provided by YPM Art Group such as plays, songs and drama which based on giving knowledge concerning VICOBA groups as part of Stop Poverty campaign and also there was a football match for U16 boys from Kenya and Tanzania. The champion was Hororo Stars who won 2-1 over Duga Maforoni F.C in normal time.The major campaign of that league as it was titled was to provide knowledge about how to fight against poverty through joining in VICOBA groups as a means on how to minimize even not to eradicate poverty in the community.

The prizes provided on this event was as follows;

1-Tsh.250,000/- + One set of Jersey + Two balls.

2-Tsh.150,000/- + Two balls

3-Tsh.100,000/- + Two balls.

Also there were gifts provided to individuals like best goal keeping player who provided with Tsh.20,000/- and best goals scorer who provided with Tsh.20,000/-.

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The guest of honor and stakeholders of football Mkinga district already been planning to hand over gifts

 MAIN GOALS/OBJECTIVES.

 

  • To groom and promote youths by giving them opportunity to show their talents.
  • Providing employment opportunities through sports activities.
  • Creating unity, friendship and cooperation among people in the society.
  • Fighting against HIV/AIDS and Drugs.
  • Gathering young people and educate them on how to fight against poverty and advise them to join VICOBA groups.

 

SUCCESS

  • Introduce YPM organization and its activities to the community.
  • YPM and its movement has been known beyond the border of Tanzania through the participation of team from Kenya in this league.
  • Created partnerships between government officials between these two countries i.e Kenya & Tanzania at councils level.
  • Helping people especially youth to avoid idle groups.
  • Improvement of people healthy.

CHALLENGES

  • In adequate facilities.
  • Lack of professional coaches.
  • Poor knowledge about laws of the game from coaches & funs which results on rejecting referees and match commissioners especially funs from Duga Maforoni team.
  • Lack of public services like toilets, birth rooms and changing rooms around the ground/stadium but director spoke to government officials hope this will be solved
  • Lack of other sponsors to share running costs of the league.
  • Poor cooperation from the media to cover the event.

 

CONCLUSION.

Sports and games is party and percel of human LIFE and viceversa thus why it has been said that “you can’t neglect sports activities from human life. Sports can brought happiness, minimize stress, maintain healthy, promote peace among people in the community. Through sports you can minimize and eradicate poverty by sending messages to many people during the competition through serminal and workshops about entrepreneurship o as to help people to be employed and to finally to employ others.In general sports issues are very important to humans life and it is the point where YPM includes the Sports and Games for Development in its programs on his stop poverty campaigns.

 

 

 

 

 

MHELO KIDS AT YPM LEARNING CENTER

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Youth Peace Makers Tanzania has succeeded in establishing learning centers in different areas in ,Lushoto district. In this program YPM invites students of different primary and secondary schools around the town.

Above are The kids/pupils of Mhelo primary school learning computer programs. They do meet three times a week on wesdnesday, Thursday and friday.The aim is to give them opportunity to learn for free, without contributing any amount of money as well as be innovative through what they have learned

VICOBA leadership training in Mshangai and Kamngobole

Tuesday 21st and Thursday 29th of September, YPM held VICOBA trainings in Mshangai and Kamngobole for leaders from twenty three different VICOBA-groups around the area.

Secretaries, discipline masters, treasures and chair persons met to report and share experiences from their VICOBA groups, and get professional input from head office. The aim of the meeting was to discuss several themes on VICOBA, to make sure our leaders feel supported and return to their communities even more confident and knowledgeable than before. Strong leaders are necessary build strong and durable VICOBA groups, and represent important figures in community development.

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Participants get training on importance of good leadership

A leader should always be elected from members within the group. One of his or hers main responsibilities is to be a positive motivator and empower others to save more. A successful leaders is one that sees that others succeeds. But leadership is also about making sure that the rules are followed and the VICOBA members pay their shares and fines according to the law of the group. VICOBA does not permit losses. This is the communities money, and trust is needed for the system to work. Each VICOBA group should have a constitution which help govern their activities, and leaders may refer to this in case of disagreements on eg. payment of fines. It is important that leaders upheld a strict, but fair, line on deadlines for payments of VICOBA money, and go in front as good examples themselves.

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Group assignment: participants are calculating how to divide profit from VICOBA according to a persons shares.

It is important that leaders upheld a strict, but fair, line on deadlines for payments of VICOBA money, and go in front as good examples themselves.

The training in Mshangai also gave to thirteen groups chance to present themselves, and their achievements this far. Some groups had started only recently, and only gathered some hundred thousands shillings, but most groups were between 25-40 members and had collected from 2 million to 4 million shillings. One group had even managed to collect more than 6 million. Most of the groups reported meeting the same challenges: members who used to long time to return loans, and lack of facilities to run group projects. Most of the groups had tree planting projects, or other small group businesses.

YMP are grateful for all the good work done around in the villages, especially by the group leaders, who volunteer of their time to run our projects. You are indispensable to our work, and real makers of changers in the lives of your neighbors, friends and families.

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EAST AFRICA CUP AT MOSHI-KILIMANJARO

In the end of June, YPM sent 22 young people to participate in the Festival of East Africa cup held at Moshi – Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The festivals took part between 28th June and 03rd July 2016.
Among the group, ten are in arts group and 12 are in the under 16 boys’ football team. This time, once again we did not manage to send the girls team. They still need to train more and get local competition to stand for the bigger events. In general the motivation for girls’ football teams is in need of boosting. Historically this is the third year since YPM begun to participate in this East African Cup festival. The participation has always been a big gist to our youth; it has helped young people learn through various seminars offered throughout the week of the festival.
Through this participation, YPM team has managed to show that they are not only for participation but more also to compete in a peaceful spirit of building a network of peace supporters. The team managed this year once again to reach the quarter finals. This is a great success as compared to the first year when we were defeated in early stages. Like last year, we managed to send a team of younger but high spirited youths. They have shown that we can compete, we can challenge one another and while doing so keep peace in the number one agenda of our activities, sports and programs. This is possible among our circles but even more a phenomenon that can be applied in international negotiation cycles as well as business rounds.
YPM arts group is a group that provides education through theater performance. They use art to warn, teach, encourage and entertain. They managed this time to teach on the effects of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Though not a direct theme in YPM, but in the sense of being the voice of many who suffer through such practices they managed to send in a point of rights for young girls wherever they are and in whatever part of the country or part of the world.
On 30 YPM that was when the arts group to got chance to perform. Different to other groups that were having traditional songs, YPM arts group made a play which was also having traditional songs to color the message presented. It was such an attractive, entertaining and educative performance that left many with need to get to know more of YPM.
In this festival there were various seminars in which young people got chance to be highlighted and learning new things. In the seminars the following were given the priority for this festival:-
1. Stop Poverty
2. Leadership
3. Law of the game
4. Coaching
5. WASH
Also there was the training of media in which John Kunguru represented YPM. He managed to share and learn on
1. Filming
2. Animation
3. Cartoon
Despite some challenges that were promised to be addressed as we go on, the festival was a wonderful platform to share talents, to learn and to educate one another. Keep Alive East African Cup. YPM on behalf of the host committee and the sponsors would like to congratulate all the young people who were involved and give honor to represent different Organizations; congratulate those who kept high the standards of good discipline and for the great work they are doing.

ENVIRONMENTAL WEEK

Youth concerns about environment and climate change By Regina John Introduction: On 08th October 2016 YPM gathered 132 youths from six schools with Ordinary level and Advanced level secondary schools. The schools were…..who came with their responsible teachers. The intention of the gathering was to further the work on International Youth Day that was not implemented on the 12th of August. This was intended to make sure that there is both clear permission of participation from targeted schools and the time for them to prepare to come up with something concrete. As part of the celebrations, there were themes that were given to the Ordinary level Secondary Schools that was….. and for the Advanced Level Secondary Schools it was….. In the presentations the Youths while identifying themselves with the importance of being a participating and active youth in the community, it was also a chance to work and see what impact do they have to their surroundings; the target was thus on how they impact environment and related issues in their community. The day was colored by the representative of the District Executive Director (DED) and the Environment Department Leader from the Local Government authority.

Students from Different Schools in Lushoto District Participating Youth Day at YPM
Students from Different Schools in Lushoto District Participating Youth Day at YPM

Among the issues that were raised by youths on that day include the following; School Drop-out and environment. Environmental challenges lead to school drop-outs in many cases. This is caused by heavy punishments that students get when they go to school while late due to having duties like collecting firewood or fetching water in the morning before going to school. When they are punished they lose hope in education and refuse to go to school. This is an environmental issue because they have to travel for a long distance for water and firewood due to drought and severe deforestation. Early pregnancy and marriages. This was the concern from Prince Clause Secondary school students as one of the identified environmental challenges. This occurs after school drop-out youths especially girls find themselves having nothing to do where they decide to engage themselves in different immoral behaviours which lead them to early marriages, early pregnancies and sometimes getting HIV/AIDS. It was also shared that raping occurs most of the time when they are looking for water or firewood in the bushes. Environmental challenges also result to separation of families and marriages. Many women are divorced when they come home late from fetching water or collecting firewood which creates street children in the society.

Students from Ubiri Secondary school demonstrating school dropout and early marriage as an environmental issue.
Students from Ubiri Secondary school demonstrating school dropout and early marriage as an environmental issue.

 

Students from Ubiri Secondary school demonstrating school dropout and early marriage as an environmental issue. Is Environment a gender issue? Youths have discovered that environment is a gender issue by showing different challenges that both men and women face which are caused by environmental destruction. Poverty among women, women have been observed to be involved in agricultural activities and production more than men. Environmental destruction causes climate change which reduces the ability of land to produce; this causes women to suffer looking for food for their children and families. Students from Shambalai Secondary school commented that droughts and unreliable rainfall creates unprofitable agriculture. Youths are so much exposed to Poverty, hunger and Famine. Intensive use of Natural resources without replacement and restoration makes youth to be in fear of their future. Too much deforestation today which leads to lack of rain creates droughts which affect land’s ability to produce. This concern was raised by students from Lushoto Secondary School during the event. This continues to expose youths into different diseases such as malnutrition, and waterborne disease. Poverty also will exceed as so many Africans families incomes depend on agriculture. District Environmental Officer Mr. Lymo Government efforts toward Environmental Conservation and Restoration. On this day youths wanted to be aware of the current Government efforts towards environmental conservation and climate restoration within the district. A representative from Lushoto District Council answered by explaining different efforts made by the Government on the Matter.

District Environmental Officer Mr. Lymo
District Environmental Officer Mr. Lymo

The government has imposed fines to the illegal use of Natural Resources like forest. In the year 2015/2016 they have collected 11 million Tanzanian shillings from fines imposed to the people who were caught collecting firewood, timber and burning charcoal. Also the government is making efforts to provide education to the community about environment and this made them to discover that above 1500 people in the district do not have toilets. The District also make the use of The Forest Act no 14 of 2002 which gives penalty to a person who lights fire in the forest by giving a punishment of 14 years imprisonment. Example there was a case in 2009 between the Republic versus Selemani Shempasi and four others who were convicted by the District court of Lushoto to serve five years in prison and to give compensation. All these are the Government efforts to ensure that environment is protected for today and future Generation. Do youths have a chance to give their possible solutions towards environmental conservation? During the event, youths from different schools demonstrated different ways that may be applied to ensure that environment is protected and restored for their future. Different creative strategies for environment restoration on renewable energy were demonstrated by students from Mazinde Juu Secondary school.

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This renewable Energy is expected to be collected from wind. The aim of this demonstration was to show that community can shift from the use of firewood and charcoal to serve the environment. Students from Mazinde Juu explaining how wind can be harvested Another strategy was demonstrated by Shambalai Secondary School. They concentrated on planting trees which will reduce CO2 on air and trees will act as wind breakers. They came up with a diagram which shows the environmental impact between the area which do not have trees and the area which contains a number of trees. They added by saying that trees reduce possibilities of the occurrence of erosion either by wind or running water therefore trees do not only act as a CO2 sink but also can help in the addition of soil fertility and trees ensures the availability of water. Students from shambalai Secondary school. As the matter of energy use and poor disposal of wastes is concerned in developing countries, Ubiri Secondary school students demonstrated different ways which my be used to reduce concentration on natural resources. They demonstrated on how people can recycle used papers to make charcoal that instead of throwing them away they can be recycled. They also demonstrated how people can use the remains from charcoal (charcoal ash) to make another charcol. As the picture below demonstrate. The Question remains that: the world’s efforts is to reduce the concentration of CO2 on air by discouraging industrialization and the use of non renewable energy. For developing countries like Tanzania we are in the era of Industrialization as the motto of the 5th Government is concerned (Tanzania ya Viwanda). A student from Shambalai Secondary school named Samuel Thomas (A-Level) is asking on how will the Government take into consideration the issues of environmental conservation with Tanzania Ya Viwanda? It is suggested by the students that efforts of industrialization should consider environmental conservation for the current and future generation.

VISITORS

The whole week YPM had visitors from Haugland, Valdress and YPP and those visitors had oppotunity to sit together and discuss a few of the important things that lead to progress. Valders got a chance to visit some places like IRENTE CHILDREN S HOME, and towards the village of KWEDEGHE for purpose of learning to see the life they live Tanzanians especially those who live in rural ares and had the opportunity to participate in their daily activities. Haugland also got a chance to visit those areas.

 

 

 

 

 

Opening of Stop poverty cup

On the 29th of October YPM, officially opened the Stop Poverty Cup. The first two matches were played in Mkinga between Maforoni football club and Lunga lunga Cranes on Saturday, and a second match between Horohoro Border and Liverpool on Sunday.

What is Stop Poverty Cup?

Stop Poverty Cup is a part of the Stop Poverty Campaign, aiming at ending poverty and misery once and for all. By playing for one of our teams, we hope to increase young people’s awareness about development issues. Sport is a good arena for personal develop and boosting of talents, but also wider community development. Youths love sports and we feel that sports will be a good platform to make the voice to stop poverty and work for justice be heard to many of our targets. We encourage our young hopes to think bigger than themselves. To think of “What is my contribution to development of this country?” rather than just “what can this country do for me?” That is why we say that sports are not just for personal health, but for the health of our country as well.

Opening of the cup in Mkinga

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Preematch between teams from Kenya and Tanzania

This weekend a big opening sermon was held in Mkinga to mark the beginning of the cup. District executive director was present, together with YPM staff, YPM tensing from Lushoto, and teams from Kenya and Tanzania. Speeches were held about our main theme of stop poverty, and tensing performed a play about VICOBA. Through sports and games – the language of the youth – we hope the participants will go home wiser than before.

After the sermon, the first match of the cup were held between Maforoni footbal club from Tanzania, and Lunga lunga Cranes form Kenya. The score ended at a tie of 1-1. The match next day between Horohoro Border and Liverpool ended 2-1. YPM is happy to see that our youths are doing well and show talents and engagement.

The cup will go on until December between different teams in Tanga region. Timetable will be posted here the coming week. 

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And the game is on! Pre-match before the opening match.
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Tensing from Lushoto performs play about VICOBA
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Audience are eager watching the game