14 January 2014

14 January 2014Ace Africa Future Stars Football Academy Launched at the Tanzanian High Commission!

 

Tanzanian High Commision ACEAce Africa in partnership with Future Stars Football Academy is piloting a football league amongst Ace CtC Clubs in rural Tanzania.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world and the provision of quality sports training for children and youth is severely lacking. There are very few clubs in or out of schools that provide children, particularly the disadvantaged with an opportunity to participate in sport. There are no sporting activities or resources in the primary schools where ACE Africa works, resulting in over 3,000 children lacking access to any form of exercise or opportunity to learn the disciplines involved in competitive sport.

The ‘ACE Future Stars League’ is a pilot project to be conducted in 30 primary schools in the rural areas of Arusha, and will bring disciplined sporting skills to disadvantaged children in schools where there is no formal exercise or sport training for primary school children. The partnership between Ace Africa and Future Stars Academy will add value to the already established Ace Child-to-Child primary school clubs and increase the reach of the Future Stars Academy quality training thereby providing the opportunity for thousands of more children to reap the benefits e.g. be engaged and motivated to stay in school, improve their academic achievements, improve their physical and emotional wellbeing and establish essential life skills for the future. In addition, it will enable more Tanzanian children to take part in the Government of Tanzania UMITASHUMTA competition. 

The pilot project phase, taking place from October 2013 until March 2014, will directly benefit a total of 200 people (180 children – 90 boys and 90 girls, 12 school teachers, 6 head teachers and 2 FSA coaches.  The project will indirectly benefit 3,000 children (6 x 500 children in 30 schools) and 50 teachers.

Glen Pierce, Master of Football at Eton College along with 3 Gap year students from Eton College, Ali Lyons, Tom Pearson and Nicholas Zafiriou are spending a month from Mid-January in Tanzania to kick off the programme. The project was launched at The High Commission in London with His Excellecy, Peter Kallaghe, the High Commissioner in London, along with Glen and the boys from Eton, Dilip Navapurkar (a sponsor and trip organiser) of Safarihub, Ace Africa Chairman, John Collenette and Lizzy Epsley as well as members of the Tanzanian and UK press.

The High Commissioner has also kindly arranged for his wife to host a launch reception in Arusha the week of the 13th Jan to promote the project and meet the press. We will keep you updated about the exciting developments over the coming weeks!

Ace Future Stars Blog Coverage:
Glen Pierce Blog
Michuzi Blog
Tanzanian Press:
The Citizen