adminSenior Sports Reporter
DROVES of athletes are expected to descend on Mutare when the 2014 edition of the national Youth Education through Sport (YES) games get underway next month.
Masvingo are the defending champions. Mutare will be hosting the event for the second time after playing host to the same event a decade ago.
Participants are set to compete for top honours in sporting disciplines that include soccer, netball and volleyball.
Sports and Recreation Commission Manicaland coordinator Shupikai Berejena confirmed that the province has stepped up preparations of the event. He appealed to the local corporate community to assist in raising requisite funds and resources needed to successfully host the 13th edition of the games.
“We are going to host the 2014 national Youth Education through Sport festival on November 20 to 23.
“We seem to be behind in terms of mobilizing resources therefore we are passionately appealing to the corporate community to assist in raising requisite funds and resources needed to successfully host the games,” he said.
The YES games are the brainchild of SRC and are meant to give youths aged between 10 and 17 an opportunity to partake in sporting activities to enhance skills development.
Apart from the sports skills development component, the YES games are also aimed at imparting peer education to youths in the face of HIV and Aids as well as enhance youth participation in community development projects.
“Success of a club at the YES games is measured against its ability to excel in sporting activities, the club’s capacity or ability to impart peer education and participation in community development projects. All these are key areas that we judge when we come up with the overall winner,” he said.
The national YES games are usually staged the first week of every December when they coincide with the national tree planting day but the event has been pushed forward to afford the chance for participants to also take part in the African Union Youth Games set for December in Bulawayo.
The theme of this YES games is “promoting child protection and youth empowerment through sport”.
Online Reporter