SPORTS are regarded as a strong tool which helps a lot to improve people’s health, meaning that a person who has poor health can’t effectively take part in most of the sport activities.
It is not a hidden fact that there is something to be said about sports arenas and sanitation as well as individual cleanliness on and off the pitch.
Nyumba ni Choo, a national sanitation campaign under the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC) partnered with the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to create awareness on the importance of using proper latrines as well as washing hands at a household level and in a public.
The partnership, which officially started in August last year with the Community Shield match between Simba and Azam, further elevated its prominence on January 4th , 2020 during the traditional derby between Simba SC and Young Africans at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
The decision makers of such a highly anticipated match, the referees entered the 60,000-capacity venue for prematch warm-ups putting on the highly visible Nyumba ni Choo T-shirts. The central referee on the day who was a female run back and forth for the world to see the campaign slogan of ‘ Usichukulie poa, Nyumba ni Choo’!
As the whistle blew for the match to begin, the referees put on jerseys which featured the Nyumba ni Choo logo on the left hand shoulder.
“The match had all the thrills of an epic traditional derby and the referees were rightly visible through it all, therefore the campaign message to educate people about the importance of sanitation in various parts of the country via referee jerseys is something we highly appreciate and value a lot since our mission is to see every household in Tanzania using an improved toilet,” said the National Sanitation Coordinator Anyitike Mwakitalima.
“Our slogan ‘Nyumba Ni Choo’ with good partnership from TFF, had an opportunity to send the intended message to many people in various parts of the country via referee jerseys something we highly appreciate since our mission is to see Tanzanians using good toilets which have water to be used for washing hands,” Mwakitalima said.
He added that roughly, about 20m people who watched the game through television had access to see their message a situation he said was a good start for the promotion of the campaign in sports insisting that the platform is powerful due to big fan base it has in many parts of the world.
He also disclosed that the #SSCvYNGSC hashtag which trended a lot on the big match day was crafted by ‘Nyumba Ni Choo’ campaign in collaboration with TFF as another deliberate means to spread the message to millions of people countrywide.
He added that in this world, there are only three big things which have power to bring many people together describing them as religion, music and sports.
“For us, we have opted to venture in sports to widely circulate our message. Through this campaign, we expect that football hosting venues will have access to clean toilets as a step further to accelerate sanitation drive,” he said.
Sports have proved to be one of the major tools of bringing people together in support of various courses in the society. Nyumba ni Choo campaign has used sports and football platform in particular to reach a wide range of people, especially men who are both football fans and decision makers in their households.
In 2019, the campaign partnered with Ndondo Cup tournament to reach local people in Dar es Salaam with the sanitation message.
The sanitation activities were mobilized using 8 teams that qualified for the quarter finals of Ndondo Cup tournament whereby the players, health officers and local chairpersons marched through various streets to urge people to improve their toilets.
At the end of the tournament there was a recognition awards for the ‘modern team’. It is undoubtedly the reason the campaign is currently using the young Tanzania football prodigy, Kelvin John as its goodwill ambassador.
Kelvin serves as a platform for Nyumba ni Choo to communicate to youth both inside and outside the country focusing much on sanitation. On the other hand, TFF which is the football governing body in the country, has been on the front pedal in creating various social initiatives aimed at improving football standards.
“As a football community we want to see a bright and strong Tanzania, so the wellbeing of Tanzanians is something that we feel is worth supporting. We will work closely for the sake of ensuring that the objectives of the campaign are reached,” said the federation’s General Secretary Wilfred Kidao.
Henceforth, Mainland Premier League referees will be officiating games with their kits branded with Nyumba Ni Choo logo. This will help to spread sanitation message across the country hence improving people’s lives
