Development Talk

 

A new day is dawning in Mozambique.
After nearly many years of civil unrest, the small nation on South Eastern coast of Africa is starting to rebuild. The promise of limitless possibilities beams from the smiles of school children running to new or partially built schools. Unfortunately, these smiles often turn to tears as financial backers of many development projects are failing to meet their commitments. As the global financial crisis strikes panic in the hearts of funding institutions, money initially earmarked to help develop post war Mozambique has all but dried up. In response to the growing number of commissioned development projects losing financial backing, Celio Mondlane of Fundacao Joaquim Chissano and Minister of Education Dr. Zeferino Martins, have turned to social media to encourage wide spread investment in their county’s future as well as showcasing its success stories. Educate Mozambique is the blog platform where anybody can learn about and support education initiatives all over Mozambique. It is essentially a way of crowd sourcing new

Flag of Mozambique

 avenues of funding, empowering individuals with information about ways they can contribute. Now, instead of waiting for a massive check that may never come from a bank that no longer considers “charity” a priority, any number of concerned individuals from anywhere in the world can give a little bit of money or time to make a big difference in the lives of children in Mozambique.

Visit the site learn to more about how you can support Educate Mozambique!

Children from Hout Bay are kept off the streets with soccer, in the Stars in their Eyes project.

Children from Hout Bay are kept off the streets with soccer, in the Stars in their Eyes project.

Ironically, even though South Africa will be hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup in less than a year, physical education is deprioritised in schools across the country. The benefits of sport for one’s well-being are disregarded.

This was the opinion of guests at a colloquium hosted by the Social Transformation Programme  of the Department of the Premier, on Thursday the 25 June. The goal of the colloquium was to address the issue of how sport could contribute to social transformation.       

 The colloquium consisted firstly of a panelist discussion, where key stakeholders and academics working within the arena of sport and transformation put forward their views on sport as a mechanism for social transformation. Both the achievements and challenges at a policy level and grassroots level were raised.

Following the panelist discussion the floor was opened to the guests for comments. The floor’s diverse composition made for an insightful discussion. An interesting point to arise from the discussion is the fact that physical education is no longer included in the South African school curriculum.

Sport has many benefits and should be practised in schools.

Sport has many benefits and should be practised in schools.

Luckily, with South Africa’s responsibility as host of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, sport has been pushed up the priority list, for example with the Stars in their Eyes project that aims to uplift children in priority areas through soccer. However, sport needs to be prioritised even more. South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup should be used to put sport back into schools.

 While doing an evaluation of the Stars in their Eyes project, Development Works explored the many benefits that sport has for children. It does not only keep them physically healthy, but also keeps them from the streets, gangs and drugs, builds their self-esteem and teaches them to work hard within a team. This is very necessary.