Netball makes an obvious choice for girls as it is a widely known sport that has been played in Swaziland for a number of generations. It is an easy skill to acquire at a basic level. The teams are small so it gives the girls an opportunity to identify with and relate to other team members and coaches.
Girls aged between 12 and 25 comprise the most vulnerable group to HIV infection in Swaziland. Due to economic hardship, exacerbated by the deaths of providers brought on by HIV/AIDS, girls feel forced to trade sexual favors for basic financial gain in the form of food, clothes, shoes, school fees, cell phones, and cash. Statistically girls and young ladies in this age group have one of the highest HIV infection rates, some estimates have it as high as 80%.
We are in the process of establishing a netball project at the Emkhuzweni Youth Center (EYC) that has the following results and objectives:
- A netball court has been built and poles, hoops, nets and balls provided.
- Three people have been sent for training as umpires and coaches at training events convened by the National Netball Association of Swaziland (NNAS).
- To provide these teams with the highest standards possible in coaching, practice facilities and organized competition.
- To promote commitment to team and practice sessions, thereby facilitating community.
- To reward good performance, commitment and faithfulness with prizes such as food, shoes, clothes, school fees, cell phones. The aim is to replace the incentives for survival sex, thus postponing the girls sexual debut and protecting them from risk of HIV infection.
- To develop and maintain a close working relationship with NNAS that will enhance the quality of netball in the eMayiwane community and open opportunities for a broader network of relationships with other teams and communities.
- To reach the target group of all girls from the ages of 10/12 years to young adult age (early 20’s) under the eMayiwane Inkhundla.
- To draw girls who have been orphaned, especially those living with younger/older siblings only, into an organized sports activities and community structures outside their immediate family.
- Each coach would be a role model, counselor, younger mother, and mentor for her team members. This makes it imperative that coaches meet the requirements of character and commitment needed to fill this role (by serving as counselors, the coaches will promote life-styles and values that end the perpetuating cycle and spread of HIV/AIDS. Girls will be taught the value abstinence within the context of sports, team commitment and accountability.
- To train the coaches to monitor the girls situations at home, especially in child-run homes, looking for possible signs of trouble.
- The coaches will network with school-teachers to coordinate any interventions that may be required to assist any team member who is experiencing difficulties at school or at home.
- The sport would provide a point of focus for the girls that they can begin to identify with as being ‘their’ activity that they can own and take pride in.
- The management and organizers of the netball project will develop and maintain relationships with schools in the community in order to coordinate the development of netball in the community.
Once the netball program starts, the target group will be eager to join, therefore the following items will be needed:
- Uniforms and shoes are needed for three netball teams.
- Prizes for tournaments, attendance to practices, team spirit and initiative.
- Counseling training for coaches.
- Lights for night practice.
