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Playing Game for Social Change

Written by Amina Kibirige
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Having fallen pregnant at the tender age of 16 years, Lilian Mbeyu felt shattered, with no future to look forward to. It was not just the ridicule from her peers that she dreaded the most, but the embarrassment that would befall her parents. Mbeyu considered herself just another village girl in Kilifi where teenage pregnancy, school drop outs and early marriages are the norm.Looking back, she recountedl the struggles that her parents had undergone to put her and her seven siblings through school tears flowing down her face. “I thought of the several times that my dad, now a retired veterinary officer in Kilifi, had been out of his formal employment which made my mother resort to odd jobs just to put food on the table,” said Mbeyu. “ Severally,she burned trees to get charcoal just to raise our fees. All this and more made me feel angry at myself for having disappointed them especially considering the fact that everyone said I was the most loved of all their children.” Despite all the odds , Mbeyu mastered the courage to face her parents and shared with them her predicament. Luckily for her, both parents were understanding. While the father promised to continue paying her school fees, the mother offered to take care of her baby she was born. To avoid scrutiny from her school mates, Mbeyu opted to change schools. Although most of her former school mates at St. Jonnes Secondary school were not aware that she had given birth, she still felt embarrassed and decided to go to Chumani girls secondary school where nobody knew her. At Chumani, Mbeyu slowly started embracing her out-going nature once again. She joined the school’s football team and would play in many inter-school tournaments organized by Moving The Goalpost – a sports development programme that uses football as a tool in bringing about development in different societies. Little did she know that the game would change her life forever. On completing form four, Mbeyu would walk for three kilometers from her home in Bofa to the Kilifi Institute of Agricultrure (currently Pwani University College) where several youths from Kilifi would converge every other afternoon for football practice. On the advice of an MTG board member, she registered herself with the football programme and immediately earned herself training as a referee. Although she would not receive any pay, the 19 year old mother of one did not loose hope and continued to oversee matches as well as volunteer to do different duties at the MTG offices in Mnarani-Kilifi. Her patience soon paid off and in May 2006, Mbeyu was trained as a peer educator in reproductive health and HIV and AIDS and started earning an allowance of Kenya Sh150 (2 US Dollars) per day. With continued commitment, Mbeyu opportunities to train in different fields kept on increasing as were her responsibilities. She became a peer educator, facilitator, and community mobiliser. By June 2008 she was an acomplished leader with respponsibilities as a training coordinator and Coach of Coaches. But that was not all, through football, Mbeyu has now gotten herself a full time employment and can now comfortably support her two sibling, one in secondary school and the other in college, besides paying school fees for her now six year old daughter. As if that is not enough, Mbeyu and five other girls visited to South Africa to celebrate their achievements in football during the Football for Hope festival, which took place for two weeks at the corridors of the World cup. The festival, organized by Street Football World and Football for Hope brought together 32 teams from different countries. Mbeyu and her friends from MTG and a second team from the Mathare Youth Sports Association representedKenya. According to Margaret Belewa, MTG’s Programme Manager, the festival is out to promote social change through football. Said Belewa: “The teams would not just be playing football. They will also get trainings in leadership and photography, besides competing for the trophy.” Belewa said football had not only helped build confidence in the girls but also helped change the perception the community had on the girl. By picking a sports that had previously been associated with boys only, the girl child got an opportunity to prove her abilities and explore her potentials, she said. To 17 year old Sarah Kitsao, football has not only encouraged her to work harder in school but also made her famous within her home district as well a role model to her peers,Said Kitsao “These days I always get people greeting me whenever I am walking in the streets and it is no longer strange to hear people shout ‘Vipi goalkeeper wa MTG?’ [how are you doing MTG goalkeeper?] but I also have to remember to do my homework or risk being suspended from the team.” At MTG, said Kitsao, students always have to hand in their school progress reports at the end of each school term and if one’s performance is found to be wanting, the person in suspended from playing until they catch up in their studies. “Even as we pack our football jerseys and warm clothes, we do not leave our books because we do not want to lose track of our studies,” she said Kitsao started playing football at the age of 11 and was selected as a member of the super team, or the most reliable footballers, at the age of 15. Besides air ticket, which was raised from the generous contributions of Kilifi residents and the Coast corporate society, Football for Hope paid for all the other costs to be incurred during the trip. The biggest preparation challenge, said Belewa, was getting the travel documents ready since some of the players did not even own a birth certificate. She said: “The girls and boys around this area have limited opportunities and the festival has also promoted the need to have recognition documents like birth certificates and passports." To celebrate this rare opportunity to travel to South Africa were parents and the girls’ mentor Angeline Sonje who has always encouraged them to “always work hard for success and not always look out for short cuts”.