09 Oct 2023

The football fraternity is part and parcel of the community and therefore must be seen in taking the lead in advocating for health for all and fighting other socio-economic challenges.

This was said by Botswana Football Association (BFA) national executive committee’s women representative, Lobito Ncube at the official launch of the Positive Choices Women’s FA Cup in collaboration with the National AIDS Promotion and Health Agency (NAPHA) and BONA Naledi at Lekidi centre recently.

Ncube said the tournament would run throughout October, which had been declared Breast Cancer awareness month and use the power of the world game to engage the community and intensify the voice of not only fighting breast cancer but encourage people to take full responsibility of their general health.

She added that women’s football clubs in the Gaborone Region would also use the power of sport to engage the magnitude of their supporters in celebrating the lives of breast cancer survivors, encouraging community to engage in fighting the deadly disease by testing and taking all precautionary measure to defeat breast cancer.

Ncube applauded BONA Naledi and NAHPA for engaging women in football in reaching out to the community and encouraging them to join hands in fighting breast cancer.

“As football is growing across the world gaining popularity, the sport is ideal for advancing issues of public interest such as health messages and as a team sport with a huge following whatever message is shared through football will reach out to the magnitudes,” she said.

Giving an overview of the tournament, Kago Mosinyi from BONA Naledi said all the 16 women football teams in divisions one and two of the region would partake in the competition, which would be conducted in three stages with the winners getting P10 000 while second and third placed teams would get P7 500 and P5 000 respectively.

Mosinyi said the tournament would be held under the theme, Itse Mabele a Gago, and would primarily focus on encouraging football followers to test for breast cancer, encourage friends, families and the public to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as breast cancer.

He said the event was a significant step in promoting health awareness and positive choices within the sporting community.

Meanwhile, a representative from NAHPA, Gloria Ralekgotla said the agency engaged Community Support Organisations (CSOs) like BONA Naledi in fighting NCDs.

“NAHPA funds entities to spread positive messages on NCDs, HIV and AIDS. One of the mandates of BONA Naledi is creating awareness and coordinating activities of fighting NCDs as well as HIV and AIDS. Therefore, sport, specifically women’s football is viewed as a strategic platform to fight NCDs,” Ralekgotla said.

Southern Football Region representative, Vincent Mafuta was confident that NAHPA would achieve positive results in campaigning for the fight against NCDs through women’s football.

Mafuta said the tournament was a typical example of mindset change and reset agenda because BONA Naledi opted for a strategy that would comprehensively reach out to the community.

He applauded government’s efforts through NAHPA geared towards fighting NCDs, adding the agency needed support from various community groupings such as women in football.

“I appeal to various stakeholders and the community to support efforts made by BONA Naledi and women’s football in fighting social challenges. Thank you for identifying the strength of women’s football and using the power it possess to build a resilient and healthy nation,” Mafuta said. Ends