The NFA Galz & Goals youth team are due to leave for South Africa on July to compete in the Hessequa Cup, taking with them their message of girls making smart choices for a healthy life.
The Namibia Under 16 girls’ football team will come into a week long training camp at Soccer House on Friday evening. The team will be preparing for their trip to South Africa on July 1st where they will compete in the Hessequa Cup.
The squad of 20 Under 15 girls will take part in a week’s camp, which will include a program of football coaching and informal educational activities focusing on health and life skills. The team was scouted at various Galz & Goals Festivals held throughout the country in 2009 and selected for their positive attitude and football skills.
The two week long tournament will bring together teams from Africa and beyond and will take place in Riversdale situated in the Western Cape. The girls will participate in 6 and 11-a-side tournaments in the youth girls’ category, but the focus will not only be on the beautiful game.
During the tournament the NFA Galz & Goals team will have the opportunity to share a message of making healthy choices with a team of South African girls. On Wednesday 8 July they will get together with local team Ha! Qua Fillies, to take part in Kicking AIDS Out Activities led by SCORE peer leaders, which get the girls talking and thinking about life skills and behaviours that could put them at risk of contracting HIV. The demonstration will be witnessed by Provincial Minister of Health for the Western Cape Theuns Botha, who has requested to come and find out more about the project.
Project Coordinator Jackey Gertze of the NFA said “The Hessequa Cup provides Namibia with the opportunity to take the Galz & Goals project outside of its borders for the first time and show the world how we are using football to give our young girls the opportunity to make smart choices and live healthy lives.”
The Galz and Goals initiative has been short-listed for a prestigious International Beyond Sport Award at the 2010 Beyond Sport Summit in Chicago this September.