East Africa Cup 2013!!

Its that time of the year again where our youth gear up for the East Africa Tournament. Just like last year our youth are ready to face yet another exciting journey to Moshi. BYC is taking three football teams this year including U-16 and U-13 boys team and an U-16 girls team. Last year, BYC's U-16 boys team came close to winning the tournament by clinching the 3rd position in the EAC tournament. In addition to the teams, BYC has also sent 8 youth for the referee training of which 2 are female and the rest 6 male. The referees are already in Moshi and as this is their third day at the event. BYC has also sent two youth who will take film and animation trainings, and one field manager. The football teams leave for Moshi tomorrow with their team coaches and are expected to be back by the 30th of June. We wish all the participating teams in the EAC all the best and a thrilling time in Moshi.

For more information about the EAC visit the website at http://www.eacup.org/#

Up-Coming Event: Football Bonanza for Environmental Awareness

BYC has organised a football bonanza to climax our environmental activity and this will take place in Kiwalani tomorrow. Thus by promoting environmental awareness through sports, BYC's U-17 team will play Madingiteni's U-17 team from Tandika. The event will begin at 9.00 a.m in the morning and it will be graced by VSO, BYC, primary schools that participated in the clean up and their teachers and the local government.

Community Clean-Up Day at Buguruni

BYC's youth together with former VSO's ICS volunteers and primary school children on the 10th of May to conduct a clean-up day at Buguruni Chama area. At least a total of 100 people, this including 75 school pupils and 25 others including the BYC's youth, former VSO ICS volunteers and primary school teachers participated in the event.
                           

Prior to the event, a two week environmental awareness sensitisation session had been conducted in the primary schools by BYC youth assisted by the ICS volunteers.

 

Multitude of pupils from the 4 primary schools

The 4 primary schools that participated in this event included Buguruni A and Hekima primary schools from Buguruni ward & Kiwalani and Kigilagila primary schools from Kiwalani ward.

High 5 for the camera!!

 

Cleaning in session

The event started at 2.00 p.m in the afternoon and thankfully it did not rain so everything went as according to plan!

Rehema Chuka, giving out gloves before the pupils embark on cleaning their community

The school pupils and the youth showed a lot of enthusiasm and the teachers of the school were very receptive to the clean up.

 

They all participated fully with vigour in unclogging the drainages and picking up the rubbish around their school compound, the market area and outside people's household.

 

 

 

Pupils picking up rubbish

 

A pupil from Buguruni A primary unclogging a drainage

In addition, BYC developed brochures with  easy waste management messages which were distributed to the community.

BYC youth unclogging the drainages

The community and people from the neighbouring households came out to watch at what the school pupils and the BYC youth were doing and they at large also praised the effort done by BYC in promoting environmental awareness in the area.

One of BYC's youth cleaning up with the students

They also acknowledged that they had been living in a dirty environment and they asked BYC to make the clean up a regular event.

A resident of the area looking on. We hope that next time they will be able to join in the activity.

The event was also graced by two representatives from the Ward office who came to give a word of encouragement for the effort done by BYC.

One of the school teachers and a representative from the Ward office

At the end of the event, BYC distributed two dustbins to each of the schools and they also also gave one to the local government. In addition, brooms and spades were also given to the teachers and pupils to aid in continous cleaning activities in their respective schools.

Juma Malole, Kiwalani's head coach and the rest of BYC youth and ICS volunteers giving out dustbins, brooms and a spade to a pupil

Juma Malole-Kiwalani's head coach giving out a dustbin and brooms to BYC's Rehema Chuka for the sake of BYC office

Rehema Chuka posing with some of the pupils

In the end a spirit of volunteerism and promotion of environmental awareness was definitely borne.

Chui- one of the ICS volunteers posing for a picture with some of the pupils

 

 

We hope that the pupils and the whole community at large will keep the fire burning.

We thank VSO and the ICS volunteers for the support especially Chui, Abraham, Rose and Rhona and BYC youth leadership for making this event successful!!

For more of these pictures, visit our facebook page- Buguruni Youth Centre

VSO ICS volunteers's 'Action at Home' and BYC Youth: Promoting Youth Engagement through Environmental Conservation

4 International Citizen Service volunteers of VSO Tanzania will conduct a 5 day seminar to 10 BYC youth on environmental awareness including topics such as pollution, climate change, waste management; waste sorting and composting. Mostly this activity aims to address in depth issues of waste management. This seminar will take place at BYC's offices in Buguruni and it starts on the 25th to 30th March.

According to Mercer's Quality of living Survey of 2010, Dar es Salaam ranks the 10th among the dirtiest cities in the world with a Health and Sanitation index Score of 40.4. The list of dirtiest cities is based on levels of air pollution, waste management, water portability, hospital services, medical supplies and the presence of infectious diseases.

Waste disposal is the greatest problem prevalent in Tanzania community and this is true to Buguruni Community. There are hardly any dust bins or areas for waste disposal so most of the litter usually ends up on the road side or places where it attracts pests and water borne diseases such as cholera. Through environmental education, there is a high chance of behavioral and attitude change towards waste management and a possible avenue for wealth creation through waste sorting and composting.

Thus the aim of this seminar is to encourage and put youth in the lead in preventing environmental problems such as waste disposal that the Buguruni community encounters and also to take advantage of decomposable waste by making compost which can be a commodity that can be sold to urban gardeners in Dar es Salaam. The awareness is not only limited to the BYC youth but will also target Buguruni and Kiwalani primary school pupils, their teachers and the Buguruni and Kiwalani communities. Following the seminar, the 10 BYC youth will create awareness to the aforementioned primary schools where it is expected that they will assist the pupils to create environmental clubs. These clubs will spearhead debates and clean up events as part of environmental conservation in their communities.

The Climax of the environmental awareness will later target the wider community including local leaders and citizens where there will be a clean-up day, which will be followed by a football bonanza. BYC will also provide dust-bins within Buguruni and Kiwalani communities.

BYC is very excited to work in this project which has been funded by VSO Tanzania and it is an initiative that will create a long-term impact in the two communities and their youth on environmental conservation.

Through BYC's environmental program in the past, the youth have been able to participate in cleaning the community through unclogging drainage systems. This has built an equal measure of environmental awareness among BYC youth. Thus through this project, there will be more sensitization of the community on importance of proper waste management.

International Volunteers Day Forum

On the 8^th of December, BYC took part in a Youth forum on Volunteerism, Youth Engagements with the theme “Volunteers Action Count” organised by UNV Tanzania, VSO and Ministry of Information, Youth,  Culture and Sports to commemorate International Day of Volunteers. The event took place at Karimjee hall, Dar es Salaam.

The aim of the forum was to discuss the different youth volunteer engagements in their different fields of work.  It brought together different youth organisations and youth, a platform to interact with each other and learn what they do as volunteers. Different topics were discussed and these included Volunteerism and its importance and challenges, Volunteerism and Entrepreneurship, Volunteerism and Environment (Climate Change) and Youth and HIV/AIDS. These topics provided the basis for youth to discuss and learn what they can do as volunteers in these areas.

The main facilitators of the event came from different organisations including Young Partnership Worldwide (YPC) and Young Tanzania for Community and Prosperity (YTCP), plus UNV Tanzania.

There were also highlighting success stories from volunteers on entrepreneurship, and also in other fields, and this inspired many of the youth at the forum.

What a way to celebrate International Volunteers Day!