Street Soccer boost for young Zim Operation Clean Up survivors

Yolanda Ndlovu

YASD is based in Harare and works to develop homeless youth.

Young development activists on Tuesday shared their success stories using street soccer as a tool for development in Hatcliffe, which is still recovering from the effects of Operation Clean Up (Murambatsvina) in 2005.

“This is what we believe in, we believe we can change the community we live in,” said Petros Chatiza, coordinator of Youth Achievement Sports for Development (YASD) during a Food for Thought session held at the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section on Tuesday. Chatiza and Wilbert Nzuma, liaison officer at YASD, co-facilitated the session.

YASD is based in Harare and works to develop homeless youth. Most of the youth were still have in their memories Operation Murambatsvina which was conducted by the government in 2005 resulting in the massive demolition of all informal housing across Zimbabwe.

According to international and local humanitarian organisations, nearly three million people in the country’s major cities were affected with most rendered homeless.

Chatiza commented on the efforts by the people to rehabilitate victims of the operation citing activities of the theatre youth initiative, Bornfree, as an example.  

“There were discussions of how the operations had affected the people, what could be done after the evictions, how they would talk to the government to limit the consequences of the operation,” he said.

Soon after Murambatsvina, Bornfree did a play called Tongombeya (a word that defines wanderers) which talked about the 2005 evictions. The play, whose cast were the affected youth, narrated the experiences people went through during the operation. But more importantly, it resulted in YASD innovation with street soccer in harnessing the therapeutic value of sports on the homeless individuals.

The YASD officials said street soccer is a game played in an enclosed 16m by 22m pitch, teams are generally made up of 8 players and the games are 14 minutes long. The sport was formalised as a game through an international tournament called the Homeless World Cup which aims to raise the global awareness of homelessness and poverty through the power of sport.

Homeless World Cup in 2008 tournament was held in Melbourne, Australia where Zimbabwe partook and was ranked 40^th out of 66 countries.

Through the street soccer program, hundreds of Hatcliffe’s Extension youths have been inspired to develop their lives. One of the beneficiaries of the YASD, Moreblessing Gwauya, attended the discussion session and shared his experiences.

“I didn’t have any meaning for my own life, if it wasn’t for YASD, I wouldn’t have any hope for myself and I got linked to many people,” he said.  YASD facilitated a motivational tournament to empower and expose the players, which saw the players rubbing shoulders with professional players like former Zimbabwe international and national team soccer player Joel Luphahla. Gwauya represented Zimbabwe in a street soccer tournament in Kenya.  The tournament was sponsored by UNICEF with representatives from 256 countries participating.

The programs include as Performance Acts and Workshops (PAW), which uses arts for therapeutic purposes. “With PAW, we are harnessing the creative energy process to use the therapeutic value of sports,” said Nzuma– ZimPAS (C) July 12, 2012.

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ZimPAS is a product of the U.S Embassy Public Affairs Section. Queries and comments should be directed to Sharonn Hudson Dean, Counselor for Public Affairs, hararepas@state.gov Url : http://harare.usembassy.gov