Lorato Khobetsi
Volunteers from National Youth Sports Development Platform in Stampriet hosted the “Sportjab” campaign to encourage residents, especially the youth of the small village east of Mariental to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
The event was held in collaboration with the ministries of youth and health, aimed at informing residents about the importance of the vaccine.
Speaking at the event, Hardap health director Yvonne Stephanus said her ministry is fortunate to have received unwavering support from various stakeholders throughout the Covid-19 pandemic response at different stages.
She said the pandemic had a negative impact on sports, and it is befitting for the sports fraternity to join the ongoing vaccination campaign with the youth in the frontline to take charge of the advocacy campaigns and encourage communities to get vaccinated as the country strives to reach herd immunity.
“Not being able to practice sports had a negative impact on sports, especially on grassroots soccer – both at individual and household levels. Your arrival will help increase the pool of foot soldiers that are willing and equipped to impart factual information to the respective communities and for this round to the community of Stampriet and adjacent farms,” she added.
Sharing the same sentiments, head of centre at the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National Service Ivan Pieters said some households were greatly affected by the restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as the ban on contact sports meant those who participated in various sports codes to take care of their families could not do so.
“We all know that most of the sports activities have been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic – and because of this, some households’ lights went out. There was no food on the table anymore but for us to stop this, we need to get vaccinated for normalisation process to take place in Namibia,” he said.
Just over 900 people have been vaccinated in Stampriet.
The Youth Sports Development Platform is a non-governmental grassroots sports development organisation that aims to enable youth to use sports as a means of developing themselves by getting involved in regular purposeful activity and teaching them leadership and life skills.