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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
AT a time when mental health issues have been on the rise as many people are grappling with the problem, football giants, Highlanders FC are exploring the possibility of partnering with an organisation that will assist their players.
Speaking during Highlanders’ mid-year general meeting, club chairperson, Johnfat Sibanda said they were exploring the possibility of a partnership with a health consultant organisation which will cover the players and leadership’s mental health related problems.
The organisation will attend to the players, board and executive members, secretariat and members of the technical team’s mental health related challenges.
The yet to be identified organisation is expected to also offer psychotherapy services to players transitioning out of sport, therapy services to those engaging in drug/substance abuse, assist in overall team building and participation as well as carry out awareness campaigns on health related issues.
Sibanda said they came up with the idea because many sportspersons were facing mental health problems leading to some committing suicide.
It is difficult to come up with a monetary value but the partnership will however go a long way in addressing mental health problems facing players, club leadership and staff.
“The background of this proposed partnership is that the mental health of sportpersons and society in general is an area of concern. It’s unfortunate that in our community these issues are trivialised and as a result we have been losing young, promising talent to such vices as drugs and substance abuse.
“Given the place of the club in the Zimbabwean socio economic ecosystem, it would be ideal to use this opportunity to take a leading role in pushing the mental health discourse,” said Sibanda.
He said the proposed partnership might offer little in terms of monetary value but has a huge impact which in turn, might unlock a lot of value going forward.
“We are borrowing from the partnership between FC Barcelona and Unicef which has seen the Spanish giants pushing the Unicef agenda of protecting the child. The iconic alliance began in 2006 when FC Barcelona wore the Unicef logo on its shirt for the first time and the two have helped more than three million children to access sports, play, education and protection,” said Sibanda.
Over the past months, initiatives have been put in place countrywide to help raise awareness on mental health related illnesses.
Drug and substance abuse have been on the rise among the youths and Zimbabwe is working towards a drug-free society hence it has come up with anti drug master plan.
The master plan aims at dealing with drug and substance abuse especially among the youths. —@innocentskizoe
Online Reporter