During a (Christmas) break that was supposed to be full of
R&R, the SWB team spent their time gearing up for the first annual Kampala
Youth Festival. Following many consumed airtime minutes, grueling meetings with
prospective festival sponsors, and ‘boda-ing’ around the city, the festival was
nearly around the corner.
Upon the arrival of the 100+ kids on the morning of January
3rd, the coaches were getting their teams organized and separated,
and volunteers were attempting to sort the kids by age as best they could. Once
all of the kids had been herded into their respective groups, chants consisting
of “soccer…festival” and “B.O.B” could be heard in front of the youth center.
Each day, the kids arrived around 930 am, and loosely
gathered into their assigned groups. When most of the team had been accounted
for, the coach walked their team up the hill to the pitch. Doing some icebreakers,
warm-ups, and stretching were all a part of the morning daily routine. Once all of the groups were accounted for, and
warmed up, a circuit-style (where groups rotate in a circle, spending roughly
30 min per station) program, a small-sided tournament, or a scavenger hunt took
up the rest of the time on the daily docket. Ensuing the 2+ hours at the pitch,
all of the kids hid away from the sun (under a big tree) and listened to a
guest speaker, who usually was a non-SWB member and chose to address the kids
on a youth development-related topic. To cap the day off, the kids rushed in an
orderly fashion down to the youth center, to receive a healthy portion of rice
and beans (prepared by some of our wonderful women of the SWB English class).
Taking time to evaluate the festival in its entirety, there
is no uncertainty on how monumental this was for the Kampala community and for
Soccer Without Borders. The tiny community of Nsambya has now hosted a very
lucrative festival, allowing for all the members of the community to witness
the integration of refugees and nationals. Throughout the week, various kids
remarked on how ‘cool’ it was that everyone was treated equally and with great
respect – there was an absence of bickering and tension between nationals and
refugees. For SWB, huge strides were made as we worked towards our goal, of
being widely recognized as a top youth development NGO in Uganda. Furthermore,
another victory for SWB occurred when we realized how many more kids we
indirectly recruited to be a part of our regular programming; the more kids we
attract, the more kids we will positively impact in the long-run.
Being a part of the entire festival process (planning,
facilitating, and evaluating) was quite enjoyable, because this experience
enabled me to become exposed to what managing and running a festival/camp is
all about. Only playing a smaller role in previous camps I’ve worked at never
really exposed me to all of the facets, unlike the one SWB just ran in Kampala.
I am utterly grateful to be a member of such a great organization, attracting a
multitude of children from differing backgrounds, while using soccer as a method
to provide them with life knowledge and lessons.
