24-25 April 2010: Kicking AIDS Out! Youth Sports Festival - Oshakati

The 6th edition SCORE Namibia Kicking AIDS Out! Youth Sport Festival took place on the weekend of 24^{th – 25th April in Oshakati. The event was a resounding success with more than 700 athletes, coaches, officials and SCORE volunteers participating.}

The annual event organised by SCORE Namibia in collaboration with the Kicking AIDS Out Network and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture succeeded yet again in bringing together community teams from all twelve (12) communities of Khorixas, Mariental, Keetmanshoop, Gobabis, Swakopmund, Rundu, Oshakati, Omatjete, Tsumkwe, Oshivelo and Opuwo. Community teams took part in soccer, volleyball, netball and, for the first time, basketball. Apart from sports competition activities the participants also took part in cultural ‘edutainment’ presentations with Kicking AIDS Out games.

The annual event, aimed at using sport and physical activity as a means of raising early awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, promoting intercultural understanding and motivating positive behavioural change among youth, was attended by Mr. Katamba, the Deputy Director for Community Sports in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture. He went on to deliver a keynote speech at the closing ceremony, at which he credited SCORE Namibia for being the leader in developing sport at grass roots level in the country.

Jacqueline Shipanga, National Manager of SCORE Namibia addressed the participants gathered at the Oshakati Independence Stadium in the Oshana Region and said, "my message to you and your communities should be clear and simple: Let’s stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, adopt responsible life styles and refrain from crime, drug abuse and other social evils, including early parenthood as it has a negative impact in our communities."

The event that was sponsored by MTC, Nampower, UNICEF and NFA Women’s Desk:

28 Nov 2009: Hillbrow Development Project - World AIDS Day Event

A successful first eight months of the Hillbrow Development project was marked with a World Aids Day celebration ‘Youth can make a difference against crime and AIDS,’ in Marks Park, Melville, Gauteng, attended by Pitso Mosimane, Bafana Bafana coach.

The event involved over 800 participants from five shelters and four schools involved in the central Johannesburg project. The project, funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy involves three main stakeholders, Bidvest Wits Soccer Club, Hillbrow SAPS and SCORE. Twenty ex professional soccer players from the SA Soccer Legends deliver soccer training three times a week to girls and boys from six shelters and seven schools in the Hillbrow area. The soccer training is supplemented by a focus on life and leadership skills from the coaches and SCORE peer educator David Mallela. On the day of the event 11 community volunteers trained in Kicking Aids Out! activities by David delivered Kicking Aids Out! life skills games and activities to over 300 youth. The event itself was sponsored by ABI whose generous support in terms of catering, sound system and motivational speaker enhanced the atmosphere for all involved. It was a real display of partnership with Hillbrow SAPS transporting the majority of the youth from the police station to the venue, and back again.

It was a fitting way to mark the first 8 months of the project, which can only gain momentum in the 2010 year.

SCORE would like to thank the event partners and sponsors:

For more information on the Hillbrow Development project please contact: Clare ‘B’ Barrell on clare@score.org.za .

SCORE International: Hhoyi Heroes - Mpumalanga community team wins Cup of Heroes Finals

The Cup of Heroes is an annual event organised by SCORE, an international Sports for Development organisation working in Southern Africa. Whilst participating teams compete in mixed netball, boys and girls soccer and mixed volleyball tournaments, points are also awarded for fair-play and cultural presentations.

This year's event saw 42 regional teams from Namibia, South Africa and Zambia competing in regional tournaments, with 10 teams making it through to the International Finals held at Essellen Park, Johannesburg, from the 25th to the 27th September. At the end of three days of close competition and an extremely high standard of play, the spirit of the community team from Hhoyi in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, saw them winning first prize. The Hhoyi team walked away with a comprehensive sports kit and a fully paid leadership camp for the whole team.

Category prizes were awarded to the community teams from Dyssellsdorp (Community Service Project), Mapuve (Fairplay Project), Windhoek (Partner Country presentation), Thomo (Volleyball Fairplay), Thomo (Netball Fairplay) and Thomo (Own culture presentation). Betty Lallie from SCORE made special mention of the overall quality of the cultural presentations and the amount of effort each team put into their preparations for the event. As is tradition, the team scores are announced starting with the 10th position, with each team cheering their performance with much celebration. This simply reinforces the events philosophy, that it's not all about winning, and that the opportunity to compete in the International Cup of Heroes Finals is reward enough.

This event forms one of SCORE's three core programs and provides a unique opportunity for the communities in which SCORE operates to showcase their acquired expertise in sports coaching, leadership and administration. Every year, the high level of performance by the teams from Naimibia, shows that the NAM VIP programme is producing good results. Teams from the Eastern Cape Province consistently finish in the top five illustrating that sports leaders in these communities are really working hard on building their communities.

SCORE would like to thank the following stakeholders who helped make this years event possible: Adidas, NIF, The Jakobs Foundation, Sport and Recreation South Africa and the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. A big thanks to all those who played a role, both at a regional and international level, in making this huge event possible. We look forward to next years event which is scheduled to take place at the same venue from the 24th to the 26th September 2010.

Teams playing the mixed netball tournament.	The winning team of Cup of Heroes 2009 - Hhoyi.

South Africa: Sports facility handover and womens day event

SCORE celebrated this womens day event in style in Harare Khayelitsha on Saturday August the 8th.The event doubled as a handover of a multisport facility that was built by SCORE with support from adidas. The multisport facility was built for the community youth and Isiphiwo Primary school that SCORE has been working in for a number of years. The community youth leaders organized different sporting activities for the children and youth of the community.The activities were indigenous games, volleyball, netball, soccer and fun games for the younger children of the community.

Later in the day SCORE’s ambassador, Hans Vonk taught some goal keeping moves and tricks to the youth that attended the womens day event. It was a moment to be remembered by the children and youth as they saw one of the great Football stars of their time interacting and playing with them.