"East Africa cup, Much more than only football"

Education.

Seminars are a very central part of EAC. The choice of East Africa makes it possible for large numbers of youth to participate and benefit from the exercise. The need for education in East Africa is similar for the involved countries. Our experience is that people from the Eastern Africa region cooperate well and share a lot of cultural similarities. Because of this, it is easier to integarate seminars, workshops, and performance of cultural traditions with the football tournament. Seminars and workshops on HIV/AIDS information, environmental awareness, life-skills introduction, first aid, leader training, gender equality, refereeing and coaching, are all held for the youth and leaders who participate in the tournament.

The budget.

In the past, only a few teams had the opportunity to participate in Norway Cup. Now with a tournament in East Africa inspired by Norway cup, many more teams and youth from Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda have the opportunity to take part in an international tournament. The costs of transport and accommodation are significantly lower, for instance, the cost of holding a tournament in Moshi - Tanzania with 44 teams from the region (including transport and accommodation), is approximately the same as that of sending four teams to Norway Cup.

Responsibility and education of leaders.

A tournament in East Africa enables local youth take responsibility for the co-ordination and success of their own tournament, and avail them a lot of learning through that experience. The youth have to learn about organizing, budgeting, accountability, and about fund raising. The hope is that the youth will become even better leaders through the tournament.

Reference point

Experience from Norway Cup shows that it can be difficult for the youth to return to their home country after spending two weeks in Norway. We believe that many players from the Eastern Africa region would find it very inspirational to travel to Tanzania for a tournament, and a lot easier for them to return to their home countries after a trip to a neighboring country, compared to Norway. Each year we hope to have Norwegian youth participate in East Africa Cup. This will add to the experience and the educational factor of making friends with people of different cultures.

Building a network.

Through the Norwegian Peace Corp (Fredskopset), The tournament has given different organizations the opportunity to meet. Out of this meeting they can learn from each other, be inspired and share experiences. This will contribute to making all participating organizations stronger and better at service delivery to the benefit of the communities they serve. The tournament will help the different local groups to build strong mutually beneficial networks. The groups cooperate in the planning of the tournament, and together put the plans into action. We hope that the tournament can also better facilitate the developments of new youth groups, and make the existing ones even stronger.

Cultural Integration

East Africa cup aims to use this event to create cultural interaction and provide a basis for cultural bridge building; this is mainly done by the participants through dance, poetry and music every evening during the tournament. As far as possible, alternative entertainment will continue to be avoided in favor of regional entertainment.