The third annual sports tournament and cultural day will be happening at Ulafu Grounds, Koyogo Village in Siaya County. This two-day event running from December 27 to December 28 will be aimed to encourage the youth of Siaya County to take action by utilizing the resources at their disposal to create more opportunities.
The two-day event will use sports to give the youth an opportunity to showcase their talents. There will be various competition including soccer competition, running competition among others. There will be prizes for the victorious teams.
Ulafu Tournament is organized by Vision Bearers Community Based Organization, in an interview with one of the founders Nicholas Omolo said “The idea of Vision Bearing was muted with a clear focus of building a resilient and sustainable village. This was a vision to generate demand for community participation in development and shun the isolationist trend that was not going to change the structured ills.”
Nicholas added that all the members of the team were branded ‘Vision Bearers’ to carry the torch of change at their homes and extended in the community.
“We felt that meaningful development process requires ownership community empowerment initiatives, there must be a mixed by those living outside the village with a common heritage, and those left in the rural area. Of all the options, the idea of the use of sports as mobilization and an organising tool was viewed as a sustainable entry point.” He explained further.
On 27th December 2017, the first one-day tournament was held. Four Soccer teams namely Ulafu Young Stars FC, Nyakongo FC, Nyalgunga FC, and Umala FC participated. They represented four villages of North Alego that is, Ulafu, Nyakongo, Nyalgunga and Umala respectively.
In 2018, the tournament was elevated to an ‘Annual Sports and Cultural Day’ The second tournament was held on December 28th and 29th, bringing teams from eight villages. The activities of the tournament grew to involve girls and women equally in football and netball activities. New ideas were of medical camp, drug abuse campaign and training on First Aid exercises were muted. “The climax was the showcasing of cultural activities such as the tradition 8-lyre instrument called Nyatiti and having older women practice a dance jig called ‘Dodo’ as a way of promoting inter-generational equity and indigenous technical knowledge,” said Nicholas.
This year the tournament will be looking to create awareness of a number of things which include how the youth of Koyogo can use agriculture to create more economic resilience and sustainability. The goal is to create meaningful and specific strategies to support existing community-owned sports clubs, incentivize others to become community-owned, improve governance and financial stability.
“Vision Bearers has adopted sports as a tool for mobilizing and organizing the community to participate in community development. Our third tournament will strive to pass key messages to the youth of North Alego, Township, Central, and South East Alego wards of Siaya. Our message for the tournament will have overarching themes of Child malnutrition and stuntedness, teenage pregnancy, crime and security, drugs abuse and youth development.” Nicholas went on to state the goals of this year’s goals.
Competitions at #UlafuTournament19
- The 18 male youths per team that will be registered per team for the 8 teams earmarked for the tournament.
- The second category will comprise of four (4) female teams for football. The other four (4) netball teams are drawn from four village teams. For each football team, the women team will have 18 female players whereas the female netball teams will have 12 persons each.
- Sack Racing, to involve elderly persons. This sack racing will have an entry of 10 males and 10 females.
- Pot balancing and egg balancing competitions that will involve 20 competitors.
- Black Mamba cyclist race that will have20 participants.
- Traditional musical instrument competition (Nyatiti- 8-Lyre instrument) with 6 competitors.
- Traditional Food Cooking and Preparation Competition will bring together 10 participants (6 females and 4 males).
- Child Nutritional Knowledge Relay Competition for Single-Mothers- 20 (teams of 4)
- Agri-produce marketing and value addition competition for the youth and participants targeted will be 10.
Medical Camps
Part of the activities will be health checkups that will be held in the afternoons, for the #UlafuTournament19 medical camps will include for Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Eye problems, and Lifestyle diseases check-ups such as Hypertension, Diabetes, and Obesity.
To Be Part
“We are inviting members of the public to be part of this amazing and exciting journey which is aimed at building more sustainable communities through partnerships and donations both in-kind and in cash,” said Nicholas.
Get in touch with Vision Bearers via Facebook Vision Bearers CBO or on Twitter @VisionBearer and hashtag #UlafuTournament19. Contributions can be made via Mpesa paybill 264314 account name Vision Bearers CBO.
