Editorial: Behind every successful team is a successful coach
by Henning Schick, YDF Tool Development Officer
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Local Ambassador for YDF in Zambia: William Njobvu
Lusaka, 05 February 2010. Chipolopolo, Zambia's national football team, arrived back in Zambia on Thursday from the African Nations Cup. The team was welcomed by some hundred supporters at the international airport in Lusaka. The Zambian team played extremely well, only losing to Nigeria in a penalty shootout in the quarter finals.
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Fit for the World Cup Hype
Pretoria, 27 January 2010. ”Describe my project in 30 seconds?” – Mohlatse Mokgatho is at a loss. ‘Lucky’, as he is known affectionately by his friends, is one of the youth leaders of Altus Sport Vuma and an expert when it comes to football; but in front of the camera, he experiences a wobbliness that is thus far unfamiliar to him. One day and several hours of intense training later, however, Lucky has regained his confidence and is able to describe the project approach of YDF’s non-governmental partner convincingly.
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In Mint Condition!
Mamelodi, 08 February 2010. Money is always scarce in schools. For this reason, teachers and pupils of Mahlasedi Masana Primary School and team members of GTZ's Youth Development through Football project decided to take matters into their own hands and paint the fence around their football pitch in bright silver. At 32 degrees, the mission proved to be a sweaty one, but the painters obviously enjoyed their joint effort nonetheless. As a result, the fence that had faded over eighteen months of intense use is shining once again, inviting further street-soccer matches to take place.
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German Journalists-Network visits YDF
Mamelodi, 09 February 2010. Because of its unique power to unite cultures football plays a critical role in the lives of many people in the world. The staging of this year's World Cup on the African continent, coupled with the awe-inspiring profiles of internationally acclaimed African footballers, brings the sport close to home for many African children. Their enthusiasm emanates from the sheer love of the game and simply because street soccer has always been a part of their lives.
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The 'Mini WC' takes place in Windhoek
Windhoek, 03 March 2010. ”It is a great honour for me today to be present at this momentous occasion, which I would call history in the making. It is history in the making because we have been able to unite various nations through the power of football. I have always maintained that sport - particularly football - is a powerful tool, which we must use to unite people and nations on our various continents”. It was not the first FIFA World Cup™ on African soil that Namibia’s Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Willem Konjore, was referring to in his speech, but the ‘Youth Development through Football Mini World Cup’, that kicked off on 3 March 2010.
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‘Free’ becomes YDF Namibia’s theme song
Namibia, 17 March 2010. "I’m gonna be free and learn to fly away” - these are the lyrics from the song ’Free’, made popular by award-winning Namibian musician Gazza, who sings it with Namibian singer Tequila. YDF Namibia has chosen ’Free’ as the theme song for its project because it deals with similar topics, pursues similar objectives and reaches out to the youth as football does.
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Joint action for a better life for disadvantaged girls and boys
Cape Town, 18 March 2010. The sun shone brightly and the silhouette of Table Mountain provided a distinctive background setting when the European Union joined the successful South African-German Youth Development through Football (YDF) partnership, contributing another six million euro or 60 million rand to the 7.5-million-euro funding by the German Government.
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Clean water for a healthy world
Lusaka, 22 March 2010. On 22 March YDF, together with its Zambian Partners - the GTZ Water-Sector Reform Programme, the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), the Development Trust Fund (DTF) as well as sports partners EduSport Foundation and Breakthrough Sports - commemorated World Water Day. The theme for this year was ’Clean Water for a Healthy World’.
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Soccer and education: It's all about the qualification of the coach
Cape Town, 25 March 2010. What does fair play mean in the context of the game of soccer? Does the training of a coach affect the value system of the players in street football, for instance? How can we overcome discrimination and promote gender equality using football as a tool? In order to answer these and other pressing questions, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) launched ’Extra Time: A German – South African Lecture Series on Soccer’ in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
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Wewe and the German Development Minister
Cape Town, 10 April 2010. ’Football has powerfully and positively impacted my life’ stated 22-year-old Wewe (Nomawethu Sokoyi), animatedly explaining her involvement in youth development through football to a clearly impressed German Development Minister. Dirk Niebel had come to South Africa to attend the sixth meeting of the Binational Commission together with German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle. He was accompanied by a strong delegation of political and economic representatives from Germany. The Binational Commission is the crucial forum for political dialogue between the governments of the two countries.
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Strong Youth, Strong Africa – the YDF Africa Tour
Pretoria, 28 April 2010. Coaches, role models and the success of youth development through football are closely connected.
For the second time in only 14 months, all eyes will be on Rwanda’s capital Kigali, when the YDF Africa Tour embarks on a 15-day tour through seven African countries on 1 May 2010
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Strong Youth, Strong Africa - Example Training Session
Pretoria, 28 April 2010. The "Strong Youth, Strong Africa" Example Training Session taken from the "YDF Manual for Coach Training" is now available for download.
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