Summary Report East Africa Cup 2024
This year's event marked the 21st Anniversary that aimed to provide young young people an opportunity to develop their sporting skills, learn the values of teamwork and sportsmanship, and enjoy a fun and engaging environment. EAC 2024 continued to provide an opportunity for the young people attending, to not only develop their sporting skills, but also to attend seminars that covered topics that were relevant to them and their communities. Alongside this, attendees met other young people from other countries and regions in Tanzania. This year, the event brought together over 500 participants including leaders and facilitators; 23 sports for development organizations participated with others providing expertise in the seminars.
The slogan "A week in Moshi, A year in the Community" reflects the event's goal of empowering the next generation of young leaders and changemakers to increase their capacity for addressing social issues and contributing to the development of their respective communities. The event has demonstrated that young people are creative, agile, and eager to learn. While the EAC experience achieved its goals, it will continue to grow with the active participation of grassroot organisations, development partners from all sectors, and the capacity building of young people and organisations.
Activities and Programs
EAC featured a variety of activities designed to enhance young people’s abilities and overall development of the participants. Key programs included:
Education Seminars in thematic topics
This year EAC organized 11 thematic seminars that addressed key challenges that affect young people in their communities. These topics included:
i.Drugs and Substance abuse awareness
ii.Menstrual hygiene management
iii.Kijana Kiongozi
iv.Soccer Laws of the Game
v.Chess and Life skills
vi.Awareness Child Safe Guarding
vii.Youth and Mental Health
viii.Transformative Masculinity
ix.Gender and safeguarding in sports seminar
x.Project Management / Climate change
xi.Culture/Performing Arts
Cultural evening
The cultural evenings provided participants with an opportunity to share their cultural heritage through music, dance and theatre. The most entertaining portion of EAC was the cultural evenings, which featured music, dance, and theatre performances by participants from various organisations. The cultural programme featured various traditional dance forms. The participants not only danced to the music, but also celebrated the cultural and emotional connections inherent in the many dance forms. On the final day, the budding enthusiasts performed the dances they had rehearsed and had a great time. The festival was a success, with enormous crowds displaying varied ethnicities and heritages from many cultural groups, including contemporary society. When the group performed together, the music and movement generated a sense of harmony and unity.
Sports competitions
This year EAC featured 14 male 14 female football teams in both under 13 and 16 years’ category, drawn from Tanzania and Kenya. In Chess EAC registered 71 (Male 60 female 11) participants that was led by IYANNA Foundation in Arusha. And for the very first time, at EAC we organized 3 x 3 basketball, where 11 teams (10 male 1 female) each team 5 participants (51 male and 4 female) competed. The basketball event was implemented by GIZ Zanzibar office. the football competitions provided practical experience, fun and sportsmanship among the participants. Through the sports we emphasized on fair play and respect for each other.
Guest Speakers
The event was officially opened by Australian Embassy Representative Elizabeth O’Connor. She noted that participating in sport activities has positive social and psychological effects including increased self - esteem, better development of life skills and fostering unity and positive engagement in both civic and social life. She further, acknowledged that adolescents who play sport have lower rates of engagement in risky social behavior that might increase their exposure to HIV, alcohol and illicit drug use including teenage pregnancy. She emphasized the need to engage with parents to encourage children to participate in recreational games like sports and for stakeholders to also consider sports as something that can create employment to the youth.
UNESCO representative, Martin Karadi spoke about Fit for Life; he noted that Sport helps to build social capital by providing a sense of unity, fostering a sense of trust among participants and members and contributing to greater social cohesion. In many communities, sport is seen as a means of building community pride and loyalty, with sporting events such as EAC providing a meeting place and a means of uniting people across age groups. The Fit for Life program under UNESCO is an opportunity to bring all stakeholders in sports and create a platform for sharing best practices, connecting sports for development organizations, academia and government together.
Novatus Miroshi participated in EAC a decade ago, representing CHRISC team from Arusha. He currently plays for Taifa Stars and Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. During this years’ event, he came as the guest of honor and had a chance to interact with participants motivating them to value the education and sporting activities organized at EAC. He vividly recalled how he benefited by participating in EAC, he noted that the Event helped him to learn the value of sportsmanship and dedication. He further noted that participating in football, benefits the health of the whole community. He was happy that EAC widen access and create opportunity that reduce inequalities that in turn benefits the participation of a greater diversity of people.
Outcomes and Achievements
The camp successfully achieved its objectives, with several notable outcomes:
Increased awareness on key topics: Participants showed significant awareness on some of the topics they covered during the event.
Teamwork and Sportsmanship: The team-building activities and competitive matches helped instill a strong sense of camaraderie and respect among the young athletes.
Positive Feedback: Surveys conducted at the end of the camp indicated high levels of satisfaction among participants, leaders and facilitators. Many expressed appreciation on the overall event experience.
Challenges and Recommendations
While the event was largely successful, a few challenges were encountered:
Weather Conditions: Inclement weather on certain days affected outdoor activities. In the future participants could benefit from having more indoor activities available. (chess was a good alternative)
Diverse Skill Levels and language: The varying skill levels of participants sometimes made it challenging to tailor activities to everyone’s needs. Implementing more differentiated training sessions could address this issue.
Conclusion
EAC 2024 was a resounding success, providing young people with valuable skills, experiences, and memories. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from everyone involved in EAC 2024, from the participants, facilitators, coaches and our guests, illustrates how successful the event was in accomplishing its goals. Most significantly, the young people who attended the event had a tremendously enriching experience, all of these while having fun along the way. We look forward to building on this success in the coming years and continuing to support the development of young people.
Thank you for the support!
EAC Organizing Committee and the young people who would like to say a huge thank you to the funders who helped to make EAC 2024 a success. Without all your support, an event like this would be impossible to stage and the feedback from young people on the positive impact of the experience highlights just how important these experiences are. We would like to thank the following donors for heartfelt generosity; The Australian Embassy in Kenya and UNESCO.
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