Mathare Fun Times
14 schools from Mathare joined together to celebrate the yearly Mathare sports day today.
Over 2000 students, both boys and girls, came together to compete at football, netball and volleyball. The tournament was organised by Mathare Complimentary Schools Association (MCSA), a network of informal schools in the area and will be running over the course of two days.
“The idea came to a group of us head teachers just over five years ago” explains Barnabas Apwacho, one of the event organisers and the Head Teacher at Furaha community school in Huruma. “We decided we would do it ourselves at first so as not to have to worry about getting funding. In order to participate schools have to pay 5,000KES”
While in 2014 the tournament took place at the expansive Moi Air base in Huruma, this year the field was not available so boys and girls have been divided between two of the Mathare Police Depot fields.
Girls wearing sandals, slippers, sneakers and bare feet compete in the dust amidst excited chants. Some of the schools are equipped with proper sports kits while others must settle to play in their uniforms.
Gym kit or not, the children are determined to make a day of it and when they are not playing, they enjoy sucking on colourful ice lollies. At the over-twelves’ netball game, the ball sails through the metal ring and a wild cheering erupts. The team wearing the purple and black striped jersey has the tallest girls and has taken the lead. The referee, a woman in her twenties wearing a baseball cap, white tshirt and a pair of white ballerinas, blows sharply on her whistle. The game has ended and the next team in line is eager to get into the dusty court.
Although there are no official trophies yet, Apwacho is confident that as the tournament becomes more established, the government will begin to look into ways of supporting the MCSA.
“We are hoping this will become an avenue to create scholarships” says Austin Ajowi, an immensely popular local coach. “Using sports as an avenue to create scholarships is a morale boost for everyone and gives people a reason to strive to excel at what they are doing”
According to Ajowi, known locally as “Coaches”, inter school tournaments like these should be encouraged because they foster socialisation, help students and teachers identify talents and helps improve children’s chances in life as they get in physical shape and learn to look at situations with a fresher mind.
Anyone who thinks that informal schools exist solely to get handouts, should come to one such tournament to witness the passion and joy that teachers put into an event which offers them no tangible and material benefits.
