In Kenya, all schools and colleges close for between five to six weeks break in December every year. Coupled with Christmas and New Year festivities, December is literally a festive month in Kenya and my village is never left behind in the frenzy. Unfortunately, the December festivities has been reported as the season when most crimes are committed and the period when young school and college girls get pregnancies which – for a society like Kenya – in most cases mark the end of education and any career aspirations for young girls. Additionally, this is the season when most new HIV/AIDS infections are recorded.

The goal of Sidho community soccer tournament is to repackage the season by bringing back fun activities while taking away idle time from the youth which lead them to all manner of social ills. The tournament also acts as a community mobilization event for key health messages to be disseminated to the community members. Through the soccer games, we distribute fliers with messages about the dangers of HIV/Aids and teenage pregnancies. We also invite key speakers to give brief talks to the community members who flock these venues to watch live soccer games.

Since I live in Scotland where there exist a very popular premier league with passionate historical club rivalries, I thought of exporting this positive sporting energy to my village. I intend to create two pools of four teams each. The two will constitute a Rangers pool and a Celtic pool – representing the two soccer rivals in Scotland. The four teams in each pool will compete for the ultimate prize of being the representative team to don the jerseys of their pool sponsor i.e. Rangers and Celtic. These two ‘rivals’ will eventually get to meet at the finals which will be held on Boxing Day.

Money raised will be used to purchase soccer kits from the DISCOUNTED Sale prices at www.sportsdirect.com in UK. I plan to carry the kits to Kenya when I travel towards the end of November 2016.