WINDHOEK – The German government and cooperating partners are set to build a N$7 million Multi-Sports and Community Centre for young girls and women to help create a safe environment where women and girls will be educated and empowered through football.
Once the centre is complete and fully operational for two years, the Namibian government will take over the operational costs of the centre to ensure it remains intact with its aim of serving the community.
The Secretary-General of the Namibia Football Association, Barry Rukoro, said once the centre is complete, it will offer an additional 20 accommodation units for visiting women’s national teams, which will cut accommodation costs for the NFA whenever teams are camping.
The Namibian and German governments through the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and the German Football Association (GFA) yesterday reaffirmed their partnership through the renewal of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which targets women’s empowerment through sports, particularly football.
The MOU, signed by Rukoro and the German cooperating partners led by the German Football Association (DFB), the German development agency‚ the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the Football and Athletics Association of Westphalia (FLVW) identified a number of areas of collaboration, especially the implementation of a Life Skills Programme, incorporating health components as well as HIV/Aids and violence against women prevention measures. Just last year the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) mandated the GIZ to conduct the sector programme on ‘Sport for Development’. One of the main components of the programme involves the implementation of pilot programmes in different countries and Namibia is one of the priority countries for German development cooperation, where synergies can be used to consolidate already existing programmes such as the Multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme.
The cooperation of the five partner organizations is also based on a number of initiatives that already exist, such as the secondment of DFB experts to Namibia (this being on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office and the German Olympic Sports Confederation), as well as the NFA ‘Galz and Goals’ programme.
This also includes the training of teachers and physiotherapists, as well as the organization of youth exchanges by the FLVW in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture (MYNSSC) and the successful implementation of the GIZ project ‘Youth Development through Football’ (YDF) in conjunction with the NFA. With Namibia set to host the African Women’s Championship in October later this year, the NFA women’s football desk is one of the main beneficiaries of these programmes.
By Otniel Hembapu