2013/06/30
After the first two Festas de Futebol on the pitches ‘7th of April’ and ‘Albazine’ in Maputo the next event took place in Massaca, Boane, about an hour outside the capital of Mozambique on 30th June 2013. The venue was a rural pitch belonging to our partner project Escolinha de Tico Tico, named after the Mozambican football record scorer and folk hero.
The response was tremendous! In such rural areas where facilities are lacking, these opportunities represent a real highlight for the players. This time 120 girls and boys of all age groups participated. The trained coaches involved everybody in cleaning the pitch, and conducted the circuit training and the final tournament with great care and devotion! Tico Tico led a special program tailored to the very youngest participants of the event.
This was the first time the newly designed Festa de Futebol training bibs were used – in eight different colours with a big FFWU logo, they really looked great on the kids! Everyone looked proud wearing professional, beautiful and brand-new training equipment and this also made it so much easier for coaches to organize children into different groups. We are positive that they will also help to spread knowledge and awareness about the project and moreover, to strengthen the bond to the project and expand its ideas and intentions locally.
At the end of the event Tico Tico sponsored free bananas, biscuits and water for all participants. This is a support FFWU would also like to provide, but as we are operating on a very tight budget we have not yet been in the position to realize this.
On a very special note, we received offers from coaches in different locations to assist us voluntarily in the event at Boane! This acceptance and keenness to get involved shows that we are on the right track and we send a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all those involved to make this a successful Festa de Futebol!