The 2017 Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park Pafuri Championship, was another great success in bringing communities from across the region together through football.   This year we were very excited to welcome Chichenya team from Zimbabwe, who  crossed the Limpopo River river to join us, luckily the river wasn't flowing yet!

With 4 teams coming together from 3 countries to participate, the event was enjoyed by both players and spectators cheering their teams on, the day finally belonged to the team from Bennde-Mutale, South Africa, who were this years GLTP Pafuri Champions, after some hard fought games and nail bitting penalty shootouts!  

With around 250+ spectators, this was, for the host community of Pafuri, Mozambique, a unique and much needed opportunity to boost the local economy through the selling of food, cold drinks, Majema (Ilala Palm wine) and traditional Mozambique fabric.

 This years main excitement, for everybody was the inclusion of a  girls U21 championship, with teams from the Mutele and Makuleke areas of South Africa participating.  The girls game improves all the time, and there is a lot of amazing talent to be unlocked,  we look forward watching the girls improve and supporting their teams from across the region in the future.  Next year, we plan to welcome teams coming together for the girls championship from all 3 countries!

 2017 inaugural U21 female GLTP Pafuri Champions were the 

Makuleke team. 

CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks to Ronnie Nwayila of  Pafuri Gate,  Kruger National Park for presenting the prizes to all the winning teams.

International Day of Peace

September 21st was International Day of Peace,  where we were fortunate enough to bring 100 children from primary and secondary schools in the  Mutele and Makuya area of South Africa together for an afternoon of cooperation, fun and education through football.

Games played included:

Cooperation for Peace: Children learn how to work and coordinate together.

Followers for Peace: Understanding the difference in being a leader and follower, and how it can make you feel, and why we must be inclusive.

Careers for Peace: Children talk about jobs they want and the skills needed to achieve these.

The afternoon was led by our local community coaches, who were recently trained by Coaches Across Continents and were eager to put in to practice their new found skills. 

A great job was done by all, especially the children!

World AIDs Day

December 1st was World AIDs Day, where we brought 170 children from 2 countries and 4 communities together to learn about HIV/AIDs and to have fun at the same time through football.  For many of the children, especially from Mozambique, this was the first time to participate in such an event.  

Opening up an avenue for the children to speak freely without the feeling of embarrassment, or fear of making a mistake is vital, and something which we are able to do through sport.

Games played and lessons learnt included:

Can Ballack see HIV?: Children learn about HIV, whether it can be seen, how they can know if they are HIV+ and how to act if someone is HIV+.

Ballack uses a Condom Tag: Understanding the affects of HIV in a community, the importace of safe sex if they are sexually active.

Ballack Hands Against HIV:Understanding the different ways  you can protect yourself against HIV.

Why Ballack? As an international star, Ballack has used his influence to have an impact as an UNIAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador since 2006. Ballack has been a part of several HIV education campaigns and believes that education is the key to HIV prevention.

Discussions were had on inclusion in sport and the wider community, many of the children surprised us with their knowledge and outlook on HIV and AIDs.  Overall it was a great learning experience, especially for the organisers, who learnt a lot for next years event, which we hope will be even bigger!

Updates

One World Play Project and their Ultra-durable Football

We have managed to raise 35 balls at time of writing, thanks to the kind donations of many people out there, you know who you are! This means that each of the 30 primary schools we work with will at least have one ball each.  We are still a long way off our target of 5 balls per school, that 150 in total!

We still need your help

If you can help, know someone who can help then please follow the link below, if nothing else, please spread the news across your networks!

oneworldplayproject.com/campaign/world-parks-world-cup

THANK YOU!

We are always grateful for the support of the Kruger National Park for allowing free entrance in to the national park, so the teams and spectators from South Africa can cross to Mozambique whilst enjoying the animals along the way.  A big thank you to Gonarezhou Conservation Trust for assisting the Zimbabwean team to attend by helping them with fuel for their transport. Also a special thanks has to go to the immigration officials on all sides of the borders, for assisting us in letting people cross the various borders for the day.

Finally, a big shout out to Coaches Across Continents for helping us with content material on International Day of Peace and World AIDs Day!

Help us achieve the SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS by partnering with us, donating materials or money.

 Email us on admin@worldparksworldcup.org to find out how.