A different approach to development aid: the social importance of sport in a country with a youth unemployment rate of nearly 90%.

Whereas in Europe or America sport is often taken for granted, it has a much greater meaning for Tanzanians. Often it is their only hobby. The opportunity to do sports in a club provides stability in life and helps the youth to forget about their daily problems. However, most of them don’t have the chance to train regularly in a team due to the lack of playing fields and organized clubs. This is why we support the systematic development of the most popular team sports in the country: Football, Volleyball, Basketball and Netball.

Our goal is to establish a sustainable sports infrastructure with sports clubs that are comparable to European or American ones: with several teams across different age groups and genders for each sport.

Together with the City Council and the regional sports federations we build sports grounds, initiate the founding of sports clubs and provide them with essential training equipment. Furthermore, we train coaches holistically and hold workshops to teach kids, adolescents and young adults important life skills.

All districts in Mwanza are lacking quality sports grounds, while the limited existing spaces are in poor conditions: potholes, dirt mounds and puddles can be found everywhere. This is the driving force behind our goal to build 2-3 new sports centers every year, which can be used by schools in the morning and by clubs in the evening. Such a center costs around 55,000 Euros and will contain football pitches, along with basketball, netball, and volleyball courts. In November we have started building our first center:

Upon completion of these sports centers, clubs will get the playing fields as their home grounds when they create teams across different age groups and genders. Currently, most clubs only have senior men and U20 teams, so it’s important to establish youth and women teams as well. In this context our organizational support will ensure an efficient usage of the sports grounds. Our equipment donations will allow for quality, diverse trainings. Lastly, our coaching workshops will support both the sporting, and the personal development, of children and adolescents.

You can find more information about the clubs and the situation in each sport on our community pages:

The UNICEF Convention on the Rights of Children states “the right to play” as a fundamental human right. Support us in giving more and more children, youth and young adults in Mwanza the chance to regularly play sports in organized clubs.

The first short movie shows our basketball volunteers during their daily work, when they give technical and organisational insights to the local coaches.

In our second short movie Janis and Mergim, two football volunteers, reflect their time in Mwanza. They talk about cultural differences, their work and personal learnings.

Our third short movie shows a typical day of two boys (12 and 17) who are still attending school and a jobless young female adult. All three are play football passionately.

Our 30-min documentary is about our first steps as Football Charity Mwanza. It combines the messages of the short movies and sets a special focus on giving girls access to sports.