Background

Located in Lusaka, Chongwe is a district with a population of 137,461 people. Shiyala Village is in the Northern part of Chongwe.

Beauty, the founder of BeKa Football Club, came to Shiyala and saw an underlying drug and alcohol abuse problem as well as GBV which linked back to the lack of job opportunities. This was not only occurring in the adults but also the youth. The football club originated from trying to find a permanent solution to unemployment and the consequent results of drug and substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies gender-based violence, family disintegration, and many other vices that result from idling.

In the Chongwe District, most youths have dropped out of school, and their parents are equally not in employment. Most of them have given up hope and have buried their talents and indulged in activities such as drug abuse, prostitution, gangsterism, and banditry as a means to find food and survive, as there is no foreseeable plan by the government to end the unemployment situation.

Beauty has looked beyond the football and secured 25 hectares of land on which she has embarked vegetable farming, helping to fund activities. This land is envisaged to be the main center of activity, and therefore part of it has already been earmarked for the construction of workshops and camping facilities for the players.

BeKa Football Club

Beauty has embarked on a plan to transform the lives of budding youth talent and direct the efforts of their parents and guardians to meaningful activities that will make them productive. The grand plan has been to engage boys and girls in football and to train their parents who are ardent football supporters, in beekeeping, making crafts out of beeswax, and village banking through the financial literacy program.

Benefits to the Community

* The envisaged training activities shall reinforce the spirit of friendship and unity amongst young people who constitute a very active and consequently very volatile section of the population.

* The local authorities will welcome the training activities as an antidote to the growing rate of drug abuse.

* The young people who may not be directly involved in receiving physical and moral education will, through their peers, be motivated to realise their dreams away from football.

* The community’s health will improve due to the improved nutrition of pregnant women, mothers, and the entire community at large.

In order to keep this up Beauty needs our help to sustain the project.

Funds need to be raised for Footballs, Jerseys, Food, Transport, Other football-related equipment

A message from Beauty outlining her aims below.

Aims

1. Expect behavior change in the more than 100 youths in the football academy

2. More than 500 men and women boys and girls in Chongwe earn life skills in Carpentry, metal work, and beekeeping in the first 24 months

3. We target that our football academy can start contributing to womens and mens national teams in 3 to 5 years

4. More stable families due to increased income in the community and reduced GBV

5. Engaging young people in physical and moral Education to reduce the crime rate, drug abuse, and the fight against HIV/AIDS

6. To enlighten women in financial literacy, planning and business management

7. To teach life-sustaining skills to women, such as making different crafts out of local raw materials.

BeKa - Beauty Katebe

Beauty is a 54 year old government worker who will retire from civil service in October 2023 and relocate to Shiyala.

In her spare time, Beauty works with communities where she is sponsoring football teams for boys and girls in the Change District of the Lusaka Province.

Her community work extends to working with womens groups, teaching financial literacy, planning a discipline.

She is a Human rights activist , Gender Activist, Farmer, and Football Administrator

Note from Me (Muneebah)