Development through sport

Last year while we were exploring different avenues to make use of ourselves I sent my CV to the Namibian Olympic Committee to see if there were any opportunities to provide voluntary support to sports teams in Namibia. My idea was to offer clinical support and health education to disadvantaged groups through sport.

I was contacted by the Namibian Netball Association and in December I joined them for a training camp and then travelled with the national squad to Singapore for the 2010 Nations Cup. Namibian netball gets very little government funding, about £8000 annually, and took part in the African Nations Cup last July without any medical support. The current squad is very young with most of the girls being from Katatura, a predominantly black and economically disadvantaged area north of Windhoek. The exposure of an international tournament, travelling outside of Namibia and professional coaching, health and fitness advice was a great opportunity for the girls to expand their horizons beyond life within their community. For me the experience was very enjoyable. Memories of singing the Namibian national anthem during the opening ceremony and watching the girls dance and sing African songs before games make the hairs on my neck stand up.

In April I was asked to join up with the Namibian women’s football team for their 2012 Olympics qualifier against Nigeria. The squad were again a group of young girls mostly from Katatura and one girl from a Himba tribe in the north. The Himba’s are one of Namibia’s most marginalised groups. During the training camp I delivered a couple of education sessions on injury prevention and healthy lifestyles. Making the right lifestyle choices is a major issue among young girls in Namibia with alcohol misuse, violence and unsafe sex common problems. Jackie the national team coach does a lot to promote good lifestyle choices during training camps and this message is being spread at grass roots level through the Gals and Goals programme which one of our friends Toyah is volunteering with. We lost the qualifying match against a much more physically developed and experienced Nigeria team so unfortunately I will not be going to London in 2012 with the team.