MINISTER for Culture, Arts and Sports Pindi Chana has unveiled that over 1.6 bn/- from French funded project dubbed ‘Twende Olympic’ will help youths in the country realise their dreams in sports.
Twende Olympic is a cooperation project in the field of sports support by the French Embassy in Tanzania aiming to support sports practice in Tanzania and promote the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games in close collaboration with the responsible ministry.
Chana said this at the project launch in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday evening, stating that ‘Twende Olympic’ is a good project which focuses on the youth who hold the labour-power in the market.
“Out of the 61 million population in Tanzania, youths account for over 50 per cent…youths possess many talents, what they need is the leadership on going about what they are doing to achieve their goals,” said Ambassador Chana.
She applauded the embassy for the innovation and creativity that aims to uplift sports endeavours in the country, noting that after two years of its implementation, they should come up with a way to develop the project further.
To support the course, she revealed that the French Embassy eyes bringing a special trainer in September to help build capacity among youths.
According to the Minister, the intervention comes following President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s official visit to France last year, whereby many development areas were engaged including sports, arts and culture.
“Through the visit, we have now started to witness various interventions taking shape and many more others ahead,” she noted.
She observed that sports are among the country’s top priorities, the reason the President decided to introduce a special ministry responsible for the sector among other initiatives.
The Ambassador of France in Tanzania Nabil Hajlaoui indicated that France has taken onboard sports to be among four other major sectors of friendship with Tanzania aside from education, vocational training, health and agriculture.
“The support of over 1.6bn/- focuses on three areas including building capacity for the Olympic committee in Tanzania including training sessions along with building capacity, also targeting women specifically in Zanzibar,” he said.
Ambassador Hajlaoui noted another area of empowering two new Olympic disciplines that are going to be introduced next year for the first time. They are Skating and Break dancing.
He noted the project components including the Tanzania Olympic Committee responsible for organising competitions and training for trainers and sports managers in several regions.
The second component aims to promote Breakdance and Skateboarding through associations identified as We Present Tanzania (break dancing association) and Tanzania Skateboarding Organisation.
And, the third objective is to reinforce the participation in sports of adolescents and young women in Zanzibar through the formation of coaches.
