Kudos to Airtel Tanzania rising stars initiative

Serengeti Boys have made Tanzanians proud in the African Youths Championship qualifying tournaments.

So far, they have won a match against their Seychelles rivals by 9-0 goal aggregates. On August 7 they play South Africa’s Amajimbos in Johannesburg and two weeks later the two sides will face each other at the Azam Complex in the city.

The national U-17 soccer team has also won two international friendly matches against Africa’s soccer giants: Egypt. While in India, the team also finished third in the Youth Championships. Squads that featured in the event included the US, Malaysia, South Korea and India.

The side lost no single match. Such events have given the players was a huge international exposure.

Most of the players forming the team are products of the Airtel Tanzania Rising Stars Youth Championships. A few are from various youth competitions organized by Tanzania Football Federation. All this shows that investing in youth soccer pays. When Airtel Tanzania established the event, no one could predict that these would be the result.

Tanzania has been struggling in international soccer. Since qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, the country is yet to reach the stage again.

Serengeti Boys have shown the way, but we need to support Airtel Tanzania’s efforts and contribute in the development of the game in the country.

Many firms are operating in Tanzania. It’s high time they used parts of their profits to invest in matters that can bring about positive change in society, including sport.

Following Airtel Tanzania’s support, today most Tanzanians are happy with Serengeti Boys. It’s time we established many youth sporting tournaments to prepare future players.

By so doing our country will have many good players and it will be unnecessary for local clubs to spend huge sums of money on buying foreign players.

FILL SANITATION GAPS FIRST

Musoma district commissioner Vincent Naano has recently given households without latrines in his area of jurisdiction a one-month ultimatum to construct them or risk the wrath of the law. The ultimatum actually ought to extend across the country in a bid to prevent water, sanitation and hygiene dynamics from slowing down development and abusing human rights.

The health burden due to poor sanitation and hygiene is significant. While diarrhoea keeps on taking its toll on our children under five years of age, cholera and typhoid are endemic in many pockets.

And prevalence of these infections has been scientifically linked to poor sanitation and hygiene, particularly access to latrines, poor hand washing behaviour, and inadequate drainage.

Although statistics regarding the cost Tanzania incurs due to absence of toilets, 21 million Kenyans reportedly use unsanitary or shared latrines while about 5.6 million have no latrine at all and defecate in the open. Open defecation costs our northern neighbours $88 million a year, the loss which could easily be eliminating if less than 1.2 million latrines were built and used.

The Tanzania’s rising rate of urbanisation, in turn, must go in tandem with investing in toilets and waste water treatment facilities from the household to national levels if the fifth phase government is to realise its industrialisation bid.