Steven Klukowski
KEETMANSHOOP – !Nami#nus constituency councillor, Jan Scholtz said participating in sports can make young girls healthier, adjust their level of social skills and sustain a positive mental health.
He made these remarks when officially opening the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Galz and Goals Development Programme at Lüderitz recently. He then reasoned that youth development will in the end result in a deserved change of attitude, behaviour and thinking, which should be finally crowned with a positive personality development.
“In most government designed policies young girls are rarely addressed as a special target group,” the constituency councillor observed with concern. He also expressed his delight for the launch of the NFA Youth Girls Football League, which he believes will become home to young girls in order need of such as platform.
Scholtz stated that people live in a society where the majority regard sports as just an activity involving competition.
“To the contrary, participation in sports has a big influence in many areas of one’s life,” he said, adding that football, baseball and other sport codes are indeed the perfect breeding ground for good leadership characteristics.
“This clearly shows that there is a correlation between participating in sports and leadership qualities,” he emphasized.
The constituency councillor furthermore said those within the sports fraternity are highly inclined to adopt a team building mind -set in the workplace and social situations at large. “Sports also mitigates for various issues of social difficulties likes substance abuse and crime in communities.”
Scholtz in conclusion expressed his hope that these young girls originating from Keetmanshoop and Lüderitz make optimum use of the knowledge they will gain during the training and put it into practice in their respective communities.
The (NFA) Galz and Goals Development Programme is the first of its kind introduced at Luderitz, aiming to increase the empowerment of adolescent girls to make healthy life choices on and off the field.
Through the creation of leagues in all regions of Namibia for different age groups between 12 and 19 years and also the integration of HIV&AIDS information sessions, life skills and healthy lifestyle components into the programming network, Galz and Goals has created a unique platform through which adolescent girls can gain skills and knowledge through active participation.
Future plans include the expansion of the programme to all 14 regions in Namibia with the assistance of partners such as UNICEF and SCORE Namibia.
– sklukowski@nepc.com.na