Creating a department sounds like a daunting job that takes years to develop. Well, you may be right but on most occasions most departments start somewhere, most start small and grow from there. Like anything you want to grow in life, it starts with a seed. The ideas create dreams and dreams become realities. In this case – I was hoping to work with Peace Matunda and create a sports department, with volunteer coaches and a Library for all the donated sports equipment.

Teaching the kids how to take responsibility by checking in and checking out sports equipment for the new Peace Matunda sports department. Arusha Tanzania

I am proud to say we have partnered and with a few bumps in the road we are well on our way.  The future of the sports department will depend on good management and incoming volunteers coupled with education to the youth about maintaining such a novelty in this area.

My vision is to see Peace Matunda to provide sports educations for any child in the community

After I arrived to Peace Matunda in Arusha still a bit exhausted and sick from Ethiopia. I was still adjusting to the Malaria pills that I had started. Wow do they make you feel sleepy, exhausted and  just overall drained. The first two days I drank heaps of coffee just to maintain a balance. On the second day I had my plans pretty much set up. I was going to create and erect the volleyball net that I bought in Krakow Poland onto some home made Wooden posts, then teach volleyball to the orphan kids, the school kids and a group of older kids from a partner school in the community. On top off all that I made a projection to create a sports department/library of goods from all the incoming donations that past and future volunteers donate.

My new friend Adam the quite guy who worked around the grounds and took care of everything ended up being my best friend in business.He helped me with everything, I thank him from the bottom of my heart. The kids wouldn’t not of had any of the stuff created had it not been for Adam to help work with me on my visions. Within the first couple days I made it a priority to organize the sports gear, balls, and clothing into a sustainable library so that after a volunteer such as myself leaves the school and the kids could learn to check in and check out items that they desired.

So here was the agenda for the sports library in a nut shell:

1.      Clear out unused science storage closet- cobwebs with giant spiders.

2.      Clean walls wash floor

3.      My budget was tight so we scrapped some used wood and nails from around the area. 

4.      Measure and create shelves for all the sports equipment.

5.      Organize all the clothing into sizes, sports, and colors. 

6.      Paint a slogan “Believe It to Achieve It” put up Posters of sports stars.

7.      Teach children how to log in and log out- check in and check out the sports equipment.

8.      Help teachers to understand how the process works with borrowing equipment. 

Adam chopping it up- building the shelving for the room.

This is Godson – every time i turned around he was there watching everything I did, I finally asked him if he wanted to help. He was a bright young man full of energy.

This black paint is used to paint roofs. Tight Budget = we used it to paint Believe It to Achieve It on the wall of the sports department.

Drew and Adam after organizing all the sports gear at Peace Matunda