The 2024 plan

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Expanding Our Program to Reach Even More Kids

As KWSC has become established, we see more and more interest from kids and parents in the community.  We want to provide opportunities to more kids, but the families we serve have few to no resources.  Working with Laurent, we were able to develop a plan for a “second level” team for two of our age levels (U20 and U17).  The goal of this effort was to reach more kids through adding “B” teams for players who are working and growing in their skills, but do not play at the top level yet.  This approach has allowed us to increase our numbers from 100 to 125+ kids without adding significant costs to our budget.  Each of these added kids gets to participate in our supplemental English classes, train in a “team” setting, and (very important for the kids) play in games.  

Expanding the relationship with the Mayor’s office in Moshi, Tanzania 

(The capital of the Kilimanjaro Region and home city of KWSC)

The Mayor took interest in Kilimanjaro Wonders last summer when our Girls’ Team represented the region in the Tanzania National Girls Tournament (many of you gave support for this over-achieving group of girls to play in this tournament).  During my visit in January, we were able to meet with the Mayor for several hours to discuss his interests in youth and developing opportunities through sports and other ways for kids.  As an example of his support, the Mayor has been instrumental in coordinating an exciting opportunity for over 20 of our kids to visit a professional and youth club in a Moshi sister city in Germany.  This trip is expected later this month and, assuming all goes well, will involve our team interacted with youth soccer teams from 4 other countries (England, France, Germany, Morocco). 

Getting our own fields through a partnership with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC)

When we started KWSC, we had access to a practice field at Old Moshi Secondary School where several of our first team’s players were students.  Unfortunately, a change in headmaster led to a change in relationship, and so during 2024 we have had to rent a practice field.  This has meant regular filed changes, as well as about $150 ($600+ per month) in weekly expense that we did not expect. 

Through a shared interest in active lifestyle and community involvement, we began meeting with KCMC in January about using some of their excess land for soccer fields. To this end, we have developed a working plan and expect to announce a joint fundraising effort to construct 3 soccer fields, bathrooms and a basic clubhouse in an outlying space on the KCMC hospital grounds in the coming weeks.  More to come on this soon!