NOWSPAR Goal Girls Kick-Off International Day Of The Girl at Kapwelyomba Primary School

To kick-off NOWSPAR’s commemoration of the International Day of the Girl (11 October, 2018), five of our Goal girls at Kapwelyomba Primary school made presentations during their school assembly. In their presentations, they shared about their participation in the Goal program and the importance of being informed on their rights as young girls.

 

“As a girl who comes to Kapwelyomba, I have the right to be educated, and to be treated well by teachers and other pupils,” one participant, Cindy Kabwe, said. “We all should respect each other’s rights; we shouldn’t treat each other as things, but as people.”

 

The girls spoke to their peers about peer-pressure, the importance of independent and confident decision-making, personal hygiene, and the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ and prioritisation when making financial decisions.

 

NOWSPAR will be supporting a series of community and school based activities around the country to commemorate the International Day of the Girl.

 

For more updates on NOWSPAR’s work during the International Day of the Girl, keep up with the organisation on our website, http://www.nowspar.org, and follow us on Twitter @nowspar. Join the conversation through the hashtag #DayoftheGirl

NOWSPAR is Celebrating International Day of the Girl 2018!

October 11 2018 is the 7th annual International Day of the Girl, and NOWSPAR joins the rest of the world in taking action for girls.

The International Day of the Girl aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges that girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

NOWSPAR believes and invests in girls in and through sport. The organisation uses sport-based methodology to equip girls with sport and life-skills including financial literacy, knowledge about their rights, and development. International Day of the Girl is an opportunity for girls to celebrate their achievements, while staying informed on issues concerning their well-being, human rights, and safety.

This year, NOWSPAR will be supporting a series of community and school based activities around the country to commemorate the International Day of the Girl. Young women leaders will be supporting girls’ action at Chitukuko Primary School, Kapwelyomba Primary School, Woodlands Secondary School, in Lusaka, as well as schools in Chongwe, Kasisi, Ndola and Petauke Districts.

For more updates on NOWSPAR’s work during the International Day of the Girl, keep up with the organization on our website, www.nowspar.org, and follow us on Twitter @nowspar. #DayoftheGirl

NOWSPAR teaches girls to ‘Be Independent’ at Goal Event.

On Saturday, 23 September 2018, NOWSPAR held a community event celebrating the organisation’s long-running Goal programme, a sport- and life-skills programme designed to facilitate the empowerment of adolescent girls and young women.

Reaching 345 girls and young women between the ages of 10 and 24, the event served as the launch of ‘Be Independent’. Be Independent is a new component of the Goal curriculum designed to contribute to enabling young women to develop skills to access income generating opportunities.

Dorcas Kashinda is one of participants who has developed to be a Goal Champion. She gave a speech at the launch event in which she thanked NOWSPAR, Standard Chartered Bank and everybody who showed continuous support of the girl child, for the opportunities Goal has created to empower girls.

“I stand here today as a living testimony of the impact that Goal has on girls’ lives.” Dorcas stated. “Through Goal, I have learned to be a confident girl and take up challenges I would otherwise never have thought of. Goal has enabled me and thousands of young girls to make informed decisions about our futures.”

The participants were also excited to have been a part of the event, expressing happiness and excitement about having learned about their power as young women. “The experience was great!” said 22 year-old Sharon Phiri. “I’ve learned a lot, especially about communication. Whenever you want to achieve something, it’s important to communicate your needs so that everybody can work together.”

Other young women were grateful to have been able to spend a day away from their every day community activities to spend time to think about and plan for their futures. Pauline Lungu, 15, said, “Being here means I’m not in the compound, where I would’ve have likely gotten into trouble. I’ve left a bad place to come to a good place.”

Pauline also added that she felt she’d taken a lot of useful content from the Goal lessons. “I’ll follow everything that I was taught at this event,” she said. “I’ve learned about cleanliness and teamwork. I’ve made some good friends, and I now know how to deal with different people.”

Officiating at the event were Ms. Grace Soko, a representative of the Ministry of Youth and Sport, and Guest of Honour Mr. Simon Kapilima, Zambia’s Ministry of Gender’s Assistant Director. Additionally, the girls’ and young women and NOWSPAR also received full support from partners, Standard Chartered Bank and Women Win, as well as representatives from the organisation’s own Board of Trustees.

Throughout the day, the girls participated in various sports-based life-skills sessions–sessions that have been successfully running in schools around the country since the program’s inception in 2014, handled by trained Facilitators from NOWSPAR that focused on Goal’s four core modules: Communication, Health and Hygiene, Rights, and Financial Literacy. Furthermore, the girls had the option of participating in either a Football or a Netball match, as the event’s main sporting activity. By day’s end, the event saw many satisfied and happy girls, armed with brand new, valuable, and life-changing knowledge and experiences.

NOWSPAR would like to thank our partners, the schools, and everyone that contributed to ensuring the success of the Community Event. The organisation continues to work on facilitating opportunities to reach and empower even more girls in communities throughout the country.

Playing Free in Choma!

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ so the community of Choma gathered to celebrate the launch of the Play Free! Project at Choma Children’s Development Programme. The project is aimed at contributing to the protection and safeguarding of children’s rights through sport.

Brave Hingombe, one of the children in the programme, gave a speech saying:

I am very happy to participate in this event, we should play more sports and games. I encourage all children to report any abuse to their family, school or coaches.

The Children presented a poem about the rights that both girls and boys have to sport. Another poem was about the effects of HIV/AIDS on the community.

Speaking on behalf of NOWSPAR, Ms. Mofu Kandondo highlighted the importance of the partnerships within the project that includes the CBOs, government department and media organisations as all are part of the society in which children develop.

In his speech declaring the opening of the project, the representative of the District Education Board Secretary Mr. Makani  said:

Sport is a key aspect that broadens the child’s education, the Ministry of Education is very pleased with the move by two organisation to work with the education sector in helping fight for the rights of children.

The guest of honor, all the officials, and parents were invited to play two games from the project so they can have a feel of the children’s activities and the information in the games.

 

Newly trained Goal Facilitator Mrs. Barbra Malawo said:

This programme is important because children need their rights protected. I am glad we have this training to help us work with the children to play and protect them.

During the Sport Policy Forum held in Choma in September 2015, NOWSPAR had agreed to support sport and lifeskills development programmes in  the Southern Province.

The Provincial Sports Coordinator from the Ministry of Youth Sport and Child Development Mr. Kennedy Mubanga said:

The Ministry is supportive of community sport development programs and is pleased that Choma District is starting this project. It is part of the Ministry’s work to encourage such developments and provide the  policy support as needed, so keep calling on us.

To close the event, we had musical performance by a local artist, and prayers.

The project provides sport and lifeskill development for children and youth using Goal activities. Facilitates engagement of community members, government and civil society in the local community.

The Play Free! Project activities in Choma are supported by Kindernothilfe (Translated: Supporting Children in Need), a development cooperation organisation based in Germany. BICC-CCDP is a Community Based Organisation in Choma that works to promote children’s rights and development.

Sport Policy Forum Agrees on 10 Priorities

Sport leaders from all the 12 Districts of Southern Province met on 23^rd – 24^th September to strategise on development of sport in the province and to consult on national sport policy.

The meeting was convened by the National Organisation for Women in Sport Physical Activity and Recreation (NOWSPAR) in partnership with the National Sports Council of Zambia and the cooperation of the Ministry of Sport and Youth, Sport Department in Southern Province.

Speaking when receiving the recommendations of the Forum, Provincial Permanent Secretary Mr. Sibanze Simuchoba said upholding the integrity of sport is crucial and and critical to attaining good governance, which is demonstrated by transparency and accountability for resources expended.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Permanent Secretary acknowledged that the Sport Policy Forum was important for ensuring development and implementation of sport policy and service that is adequate and relevant within resources available to the government and its implementing agencies.

Participants in the Forum were representatives of the District Sport Advisory Committees, Provincial Advisory Committee, and Ministry Provincial Staff in the departments of Sport, Youth and Child Development. The Forum sessions where facilitated by NOWSPAR General Secretary Ms. Lombe Mwambwa.

The key themes that emerged from the Forum are the need for more platforms for policy monitoring which include both government officials and members of the sport community; access to information and resources and capacity development of the sector.

National Sports Council of Zambia Board Member, Ms. Matilda Mwaba highlighted the National Sports Council’s interest in addressing all facets of sport development including policy and programme delivery. For this reason the NSCZ is investing in Talent Identification and support to district level sport structures to ensure implementation of programmes. The NSCZ donated a Trophy and shields to be used as prizes during the fourth coming Independence Cup. NOWSPAR also contributed a Trophy to be allocated to the Women’s Tournament and announced intentions to expand it’s Goal Programme for adolescent girls to the Province through various partnerships.

Ten key themes were agreed on as important for inclusion in this round of Policy review by the Ministry of Sport and Youth:

1. Administration: Robust Systems, standards and capacity building
2. Infrastructure: Sufficient, appropriate, accessible and conducive infrastructure
3. Capacity Development: Systematic development of capacity of sport structures
4. Funding: Adequate and timely funding for the sports structures and programmes
5. Talent Identification: Structured, comprehensive, consistent programme with adequate human resource and standards
6. Equipment: Appropriate, affordable and good quality equipment
7. Coordination: Well aligned, inclusive, systematic and clear coordination
8. Governance and Accountability : Transparent, accountable, capable and gender inclusive sport governance
9. Safeguarding and Protection: Adequate system, standards, codes of conduct, training and reporting
10. Platforms for engagement: Opportunity and capacity for participatory sport policy monitoring by service consumers

The National Sports Policy (2009) is at present under review, the policy is the fundamental framework for resource allocation in the sector. It brings together the national development aims on one hand and local sporting ambitions on the other hand.

Considerations to be made during this process are that the delivery of sport services to all communities is a right and a commitment that affects the achievement of several interests of the citizens and the government including health, education, employability and diplomatic outcomes.

NOWSPAR, is engaging stakeholders through our Campaign ‘Sport for Everyone. Everywhere.’ to promote the provision of sport and physical activity to all in an effort to advance policy and programme action across sectors that results in access for all despite geographic location, class, disability, age or sex.

This campaign theme is also the theme of the Consultation in order to emphasise the spirit of inclusion, the ambition of diversity and the interest in a Sport Policy that results in service provision in sport that is fair and meets the needs of citizens throughout the Country.

The expectations of the stakeholders are that the resulting National Sports Policy will reflect the ambitions and priorities of the people while responding to the gaps, needs and opportunities.

For a long time, Sport Policy has focused on Sport competitions and infrastructure for high level competitions, one of the key considerations that should be made this time is for community level physical activity and sport participation.

NOWSPAR works to support stakeholders to ensure policy, practice and perceptions that are enabling for inclusive and equitable participation in sport for all especially girls and women. This event was delivered within the framework of NOWSPAR’s Girl Power (Women Win) and Every Body Matters (NIF) Programmes with tools and institutional capacity development in Policy Engagement and Social Accountability Mechanisms from the Zambian Governance Foundation between 2012 and 2015.

Scoring Goals at City of Hope Orphanage

On Thursday 21^st August 2015, NOWSPAR conducted a Goal  Event at City of Hope Orphanage in Lusaka’s Makeni area. The event had 73 participants of which 52 were girls and 21 were boys all aged between 10 and 20. In attendance were 4 NOWSPAR staff and 1 volunteer as well as the staff and volunteers of City of Hope Orphanage.
The aim of this event was to provide an introduction to the Goal Programme to the children and staff at City of Hope Orphanage. It is intended that this partnership between City of Hope and NOWSPAR can result in regular opportunities for the children and the staff to develop their sport and lifeskill program.

The event started with a brief introduction of NOWSPAR  and the Goal programme which was done by Fatima. The participants took part in warm up sessions which was then followed by fun games that were aimed at having everyone introduce themselves.  The girls and boys were then split into two groups with one of the groups playing zigzag saving and the other group playing peace path. The games were followed by life skill empowerment sessions were the participants were taught on hygiene and financial literacy.

One of the participants Luke Banda said, “it is important for girls to take part in sport because they also need to enjoy like the boys“.

One of the City of Hope volunteers Ichi said, “girls and boys were excited to receive visitors from within Zambia as they mostly receive foreign visitors“.

One of the participants Joyce said she was very happy to have participated in the event and she enjoyed playing games and she hopes NOWSPAR will come back and do more activities like this.

Goal Coaches Get Premier Skills

NOWSPAR conducted a Sport Coaches Skills workshop on 29^th of April 2015 at National Sports Council with the support of Premier Skills,  a social change program through football which is run by the British Council in partnership with the English Premier League.

This workshop was run by our Goal Facilitator Ms. Mirriam Nanyinza who has been through the Priemier Coaching Program and through NOWSPAR was awarded a grant by the British Council to contribute to trainning of her peers.

15 female participants who are also Goal facilitators participated in the workshop. Our focus on the workshop was that participants understand how to run sports session effectively for the community. In addition to the Premier Skills teaching material, we combined with Netball coaching training and Goal Life skill facilitator training for participants.

The workshop was started off with a football session. NOWSPAR Project Assistant, Ms. Noguchi facilitated the session providing technical training to participants. The session also served to improve the Coaches understanding of the technical aspects of football. They played and learned some technical training as well as how to plan football sessions.

Participants were also given lectures of SMIELS and STEP in premier skills’ curriculum by NOWSPAR Sports facilitator Ms.Nanyinza after football session. SMILES (Safe, Maximum Participation, Inclusion, Learning, Enjoyment and Success) and STEP (Space, Task, Equipment, People and Speed) are considerable points for running and preparing sports session.

NOWSPAR sports skill facilitator, Ms. Phiri led Netball session focusing on technical skills and tactical methods. Participants learned some technical skills’ drills, game positioning, and Netball rules. At the end of the netball session, practical game training was also given to participants.

The second lecture was focusing on how to plan sports session in community. A session planning template was handed out for each participant and was explained how to use it step by step by Ms.Nanyinza. Participants also planed their own netball or football session during the lecture time.

As the last part of workshop, NOWSPAR Goal Master Facilitator Ms. Tembo ran life skills session with participants. For the Goal Program that uses sports for social change, it is important to understand how sports can apply in real life situations. It is required that sports coaches are able to link sports skills and life skills through sports training. They are also required to facilitate fun and safe sports sessions.

During the workshop, Mr. Akim Banda from British Council visited and joined an activity briefly and to share words of support from the British Council.

The Priemier Skills Program began in 2007. Since then 2,300 coaches and referees have been trained in 25 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas from Afghanistan to Zambia.

Please find more pictures from here

Celebrating UN Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2015

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace was celebrated around the world on 6th April 2015. ‘In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 6 April as the International Day of Sports and Physical Activity, to celebrate the contribution of sports and physical activity to education, human development, healthy lifestyles and a peaceful world.’ UNESCO

NOWSPAR participated in this commemoration in two ways, media discussions and a sports event for girls.

Mofu and Maketo at Metro FM – UNDSDP

We featured on a Live Radio Program on Metro FM on Wednesday 1st April, where our Advocacy Officer Ms. Mofu Kandondo and Project Assistant Ms. Maketo N’gombe discussed the Goal Program and how sport contributes to girls’ empowerment and development.

This year NOWSPAR is reaching 2,500 girls and young women with sport activities and leadership skills. By doing regular sport and life skills practice, girls will be fit and healthy and able to take on leadership roles.

On Tuesday 7th April our General Secretary Ms. Lombe Mwambwa was Live on Muvi TV discussing the Role of Sport NGOs in Zambia. Themes covered include advocacy issues, leadership, fair pay in sport, governance and policy framework of sport in Zambia.

‘Sport NGOs in Zambia have contributed to the innovative methodology of community engagement and empowerment. Through programmes such as Goal, girls and young women access rights information and skills such as Financial Literacy which they would likely not have had if not doing sport.‘ She said.

There are several Sport NGOs in Zambia, last year, during Zambia’s Jubilee Celebrations, a Sports Festival was hosted with the support of the Nowergian Olympic Committee and the National Sports Council of Zambia to showcase sport’s role in national development.

The 10th of April was more physically active as we hosted a Goal Event at the Olympic Youth Development Centre led by our Goal Project Intern Ms. Mirriam Nanyinza.

There were 51 girls between the ages 12 – 20 years from 10 sports codes (judo, hockey, basketball, volleyball, handball, badminton, taekwondo, netball, tennis and swimming clubs based at the OYDC).

During the event, three topics were covered,  Peace, Hygiene and Making Money, the session was lively and the girls said they enjoyed playing and learning the various skills from the games.

“I enjoyed the game on making money, atleast now I have an idea on how I can make money to use at break time at school.” said Liya Mbila.

“I have learnt how to work together with my teammates and how to solve problems when I argue with my mates”, said Tina Moonga a 14 year old Volleyballer.

During the sessions some girls also had the opportunity to settle their differences with their friends: “I am glad Esther and I are friends again”, said Stacey Banda. They were able to open up and confront each other without fighting.

The UN Day on Sport for Development and Peace is a global platform to promote and advance the role of sport in addressing global issues. Read more about the day and what organizations around the world are doing and you can download a Report by the International Olympic Committee on the Contribution of Sport to Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Agenda.

Last year, NOWSPAR participated in a Sport NGO Exhibition hosted by the OYDC on the first ever UNDSDP. NOWSPAR’s information stand provided information about the role of sport in girls’ empowerment and the challenges that sport is used to address such as protection from violence, limited access to reproductive health information and access to physical activity and play for girls.

Activities at Miracle Disabled Group in George Compound

[By Ms. Aya Noguchi, Lusaka] Goal Localised Event and Kicking AIDS Out Sessions were held in George Compound on 23^rd of March, I had some discussions with members of Miracle Disabled Group to learn more about their work. NOWSPAR have been working with Miracle Disabled Group since 2012 as one of NOWSAR’s chapter as well as social inclusion program with handicapped people through sports.

George Compound is located on the North Western side of Lusaka, where is one of the places that many handicapped people are gathered because of low accommodation fee and living expenses. Miracle Disabled Group consists of more than 300 members both elderly and young men and women with varied ranged of age between 12 years old and 60 years old. The main purposes of the organisation are lobbying and advocating for development and implementation of policies of protection of handicapped people as well as engaging civil society in their activities.

NOWSPAR has supported the group in ensuring that they have a sustainable sports structure that gives everybody in the community an opportunity to participate sports and physical activities and received some benefits from them. Sports and physical activities haveempowered member of Miracle Disabled Group and given them energy and socialize opportunities.

NOWSPAR had opportunities to conduct informal interviews with Ms. Bernadette Mindeo who is General Secretary of Miracle Disabled Group and two young male participants from community based football team, who were in the Kicking AIDS Out program.

Interview to Ms. Bernaddette Mindeo

Ms. Mindeo demonstrated her application to NOWPAR’s support to her organization. She mentioned that NOWSPAR has brought energy and motivation to handicapped people. For them, it is very difficult to create new networking and socialize with people from outside of their community. Therefore when NOWSPAR conducts some activities, those handicapped people get opportunities to meet new people and create new networking with people from outside. She also explained how much sports have benefited to their life. Sports create opportunities for them to be included in their community and society. They are able to enjoy watching sports activities and playing some sports such as Netball, Volleyball, Football, Chess and Darts with other community members who don’t have handicap. These opportunities have empowered handicapped people and provided them better life. Since NOWSPAR has supported them to become sustainable organization, our supports are flexible according to their projects. NOWSPAR believes that whether people are disabled or not, everybody with passionate about changing their community better, can become good community leaders and sports has power to move forward the initiative.

Ms. Mindeo participated in the Digital Story Telling project by NOWSPAR and WomenWin listen to her story here.

Interviews to two young male participants from Kicking AIDS Out program

Two participants demonstrated high interest to become facilitators of Kicking AIDS Out. They are also member of community-based men’s football team. They are looking for an opportunity to make positive impact on their community. He explained that there are a lot of graduated young men who can’t find any job opportunity. They have been empowered by the people from Miracle Disabled Group and how much influence they have been given by handicapped people. They believe that they can do a lot more for people in the community as the 40 years old handicapped lady has given through sports. They were guided to discuss with Ms. Mindeo from Miracle Disabled Group as well as NOWSPAR representative for future support possibilities. Ms. Mideo also showed some interests to work with group of young men and encouraged them to create a women’s football team in their club. This is one of the model cases how handicapped women encouraged young non-handicapped men to become community leaders through sports.

Please find more pictures from the event here

Financial Literacy Week: Goal Activities

NOWSPAR has lined up a series of three (3) Financial Literacy sessions as part of the Goal program in three places namely Kalingalinga, Garden and Makeni. The sessions are focusing on financial literacy to commemorate Financial Literacy week which is from the 13^th to the 19^th of March 2015. The main life skills being explored are the art of saving, challenges to saving, budgeting and ways of making money.

The first session was held on 17^th March 2015 in Kalingalinga with 31 girls aged between 9 and 18 of age of the EduSport Kalingalinga Sport Club who participate in Netball and Football teams were engaged in a group discussion and question and answer style of session. The participants gave information on what they already knew on the topics outlined and most of them seem to be well informed were making money and saving was concerned.

“ When I see that my mother has no money to give me to buy new clothes for Show Time [A Youth Variety Show], I start collecting pieces of cloth from tailoring shops and make door mats which I then sell and save the money till its enough for me to get the clothes I want” said Hope, a participant.

Other examples on how the girls make money included selling guavas which grow in most back yards, plaiting hair and freezing water in plastics for sell.

The participants however were not so familiar with the art of budgeting. The NOWSPAR team conducting the session played movement games that enforces this life skill and had a discussion to reinforce information and respond to questions.

“…most of the times when I have money, I just go to the market and buy the things I see and I like but then when I get home I regret and wish that I still had my money .” Said Catherine, a 16 years old Netballer.

After all the games and discussions the girls were asked to reflect on their personal lives and see how they can improve the way they spend and the importance of saving from the little money they come across.

Find more event pictures from here