Ramotswa, 7 May 2010. It was a colorful procession that started at 9'o clock in the morning from the middle of the town to the Youth Center at Ramotswa Village where the “Strong Youth, Strong Africa” tour stopped over in Botswana. Over 300 kids carried the flags of the 32 national teams through the streets. The theme of the day was “Youth, Health and HIV/AIDS” . The event impressed GTZ Country Director for South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho, Peter Conze. During the course of the day representatives from the European Union, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education,The National Olympic Committee, The Botswana Football League and GTZ/YDF enjoyed themselves watching the diverse programme of football competitions, life skills games and cultural activities.
During the simulation of the World Cup tournament, girls and boys teams represented one of the participating countries. For them it was not only important to score goals. All teams also had to participate in the ‘Intelligence Shows'. “They answered simple questions on HIV and AIDS – and the points they achieved were added up to the goals they scored. Besides the football related games, HIV/AIDS awareness activities, conveyed amongst others by means of the performing arts, a voluntary HIV testing and a counseling station was open all day for the youth.
“SEDYEL has done quite some work with these kids, especially on HIV/AIDS – they have been picking up the exercises impressively easily”, lauded former Banyana Banyana team captain Desiree Ellis, when she demonstrated the use of the YDF Toolkit. After the games, SEDYEL's Director's Kitso Masi and Modiri Pikashe were lavished with presents by former ‘Strong Youth, Strong Africa' event host Namibian Football Association. Not only did we receive the Namibian YDF-Ball, but also the Namibian flag and a statue of a bushman, as the Bushmen live in Namibia and in Botswana. And in the tradition of linking up the YDF-partner countries Botswana handed over the gifts for the next country on the Africa Tour: Lesotho.
“It was the biggest event that we ever hosted,” commented an overwhelmed Kitso Masi at the end of the day. “The excitement at the SEDYEL Youth Center was tangible, not only about the event itself, but also about the World Cup that is soon to kick off in neighboring South Africa. “Rea ba tsaya” – “we're taking them!” - became the battle cry of the day and was endlessly repeated by the Master of Ceremony as well as the excited kids and youth in Ramotswa Village. With Nigeria for the boys and Ghana for the girls, it was two African teams that won the World Cup simulation in Botswana that day and the participants just took it as a sign for the World Cup ahead.