ETHIOPIA: Salesian students take part in Sport for Development Technical and Vocational Education and Training Championship
(MissionNewswire) The first Sport for Development Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Championship was launched at the Entoto Technical Vocational College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June 2018. The championship tournament brought together 10 colleges and TVET training centers in the city. Students from Bosco Children and Mekanissa, two Salesian TVET colleges in Addis Ababa, participated in the tournament.
The event was organized by Sport for Development in Africa (S4DA). In addition, sports programming in the TVET centers is organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Development Cooperation in collaboration with the Addis Ababa TVET Bureau.
The Sport for Development TVET Championship promotes the importance of sports in teaching youth important life skills and preparing them for the labor market. The tournament is part of the overall Sport for Development in Africa program. This program also supports the “More Space for Sport – 1,000 Chances for Africa” initiative, which was launched in 2014 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The initiative aims to use sports as an important tool to bring positive changes in sub-Saharan Africa.
Further, the initiative provides framework in which various partners can work together to open up new opportunities for disadvantaged youth. Sports are used in programs to promote education, health, development and peace across the world. It helps young people acquire important life and social skills, boost their confidence and increase willingness to take on responsibility.
To date, the Sport for Development in Africa program has helped more than 100,000 children and older youth have access to sports by rehabilitating 35 sports grounds throughout the country. It has also provided sports for development training to 65 TVET teachers.
Sport for Development in Ethiopia focuses on promoting vocational education. Salesian centers in Ethiopia have had a new sports field constructed and maintenance work to older fields completed as part of this program.
“Sports programs teach youth both on and off the field,” says Father Mark Hyde, the director of Salesians Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Learning and playing team sports encourages leadership skills as well as teaches youth to work as part of a team. Students also learn important social skills and have opportunities for growth and maturity.”
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 35 percent of its population living in poverty, according to Feed the Future. Close to 85 percent of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture but frequent droughts severely affect the agricultural economy leaving more than 12 million people chronically, or at least periodically, food insecure. In addition, more than two-thirds of the population is illiterate.
The country has 4 million orphans which account for nearly 12 percent of all children, and according to UNICEF, more than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has affected the country. Thousands more children run away each year seeking a better life on the streets.
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Sources:
Feed the Future – Ethiopia
UNICEF – Ethiopia
