East Africa Cup 2011: The road to Moshi begins

From 16 June all roads will be leading to Moshi in Tanzania, not to climb the striking Mount Kilimanjaro but to celebrate people who use sport in their community with the participation in this year's East Africa Cup.

Young people from all over East and Central Africa are energized about the "road to Moshi". Participants from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Southern Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and host nation Tanzania are excited about participating in Africa's largest youth sport and development event.

To stress that the East Africa Cup is more than just a sports event, before the tournament kicks off on 22 June there will be various important side events, which include:

17 - 20 June: Leaders will be taking part in different trainings from Kicking Aids Out!, focusing on potential leader level II, leader level II, and master trainers.
18 - 20 June: Referee training
18 - 19 June: EACCES meeting (East Africa Cup Community Coach Education Systems),
20 - 25 June: The BBC World Service Trust will be delivering trainings on journalism and media skills.

Other training focusing on the participants will run concurrently with the tournament, including leadership, first aid and sports injuries, cartoon seminars, conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS, culture, and coaching. Is this not a unique approach?

Another milestone in this year’s event is the introduction of volley ball and sitting volley ball which will be additional to football and reflects the East Africa Cup's desire to connect more with many young people all over East Africa and the whole world.

On the 23 June the ICES (International Community Coach Education Standards) Webinar will be hosted by East Africa Cup, aimed at exploring the role that competition plays in effective sport and development programmes and the implications for coach education in this field. The speakers on this webinar will address the question of whether promoting competitiveness and competition either supports of detracts from development goals.

This is just a tip of the ice berg, we have a lot happening in this year’s event, you just can’t afford to miss, but if you happen to, we shall be live on twitter, facebook, blog, and also different journalists from different media houses will be broadcasting live news.

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