The FIFA Football For Schools Programme in Uganda was officially launched on Tuesday at the FUFA Technical Centre, Njeru.
The closing ceremony was graced by FUFA President Hon. Magogo Moses Hassim who was in the company of FUFA First Vice President Justus Mugisha, FUFA Executive Committee Member Ronnie Kalema, FUFA CEO Edgar Watson and FUFA Deputy CEO-Football Decolas Kizza.
Assistant Commissioner Physical Education and Sports in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Sammy Odongo also attended the function.
FIFA Chief Member Associations Officer Henry Honore Jean Marie and FIFA Member Association Africa Regional Coordinator Sousa Silmara who have been part of the programme since the first day also attended the closing event.
FUFA President lauded FIFA for this initiative and believes the Programme will go a long way in addressing mass football participation in the country.
“We want to thank FIFA for this Programme because our intention as FUFA is make sure that every young boy and girl has access to playing football. In our Technical Master Plan, we have put keen attention to mass football and there is no better way to do it than having school-going children,” he said before adding that “ having games teachers learn football helps us to pass our message to the pupils easily because they interact regularly and it becomes effective in having more children attracted to the game.”
FIFA Chief Member Association Officer Henry Honore Jean Marie explained that the intention of this Programme is to teach children life skills through football.
“We know that football has a great impact on society and the belief we have at FIFA is that we can instill life skills to children through football. That is why we have partnered with UNESCO to extend this Programme to our Member Associations in collaboration with the Government through the Ministry of Education and Sports.” He indicated.
”We have prepared content that the Games Teachers will use to teach the students both the technical and life skill aspects.”
Odongo stated that Ministry of Education and Sports will follow up with the Programme to make sure that the message is cascaded to every part of the country.
The Programme started on Sunday with 50 Games teachers from Primary Schools across the country enrolling for a football workshop for the first two days.
Games Teachers were taken through the basics of life skills, game preparations, children safw guarding, emotional control and team work among others.
These will become trainers and FUFA will use them to extend the message to other parts of the country by holding regional workshops.
During the Workshop, Games Teachers were tasked to open up accounts on the FIFA Football For Schools App where educational content is shared and this will guide them in executing and preparing for their training sessions.
It should noted that the Programme considers school-going children between the age of 4-14 who are mainly in Primary Schools.
FIFA supports the Programme with a one-off funding of $50,000 and 66, 260 balls that will be distributed to Primary Schools across the country.
The FIFA Football For Schools Programme in Uganda climaxed with a festival at FUFA Technical Centre, Njeru where Games Teachers demonstrated what they had learnt.
Over 120 pupils (both boys and girls) from Naminya UMEA Primary School took part in the festival.
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