BINGA – As the young lads at Binga Academy boarded the bus for the 800-kilometre trip to Mutare for this weekend’s Mai Hondo memorial sports jamboree, they trained their minds at one goal: taking the trophy back home.

“We participated in the tournament for the first time last year. It was a good experience. We came, we saw and we learnt. Now it’s all systems go,” team captain, 14-year-old Ambeyo Munenge, told ZimLive on Friday as the club went through final paces of their preparations at their Manjolo community grounds base.

The annual Mai Hondo Soccer Tournament, now rebranded “Love Shouldn’t Hurt Mai Hondo Sports Tournament” after partnering with sexual and reproductive health services provider, Population Solutions for Health (PSH), roars into life on Saturday in the eastern border city.

Sixteen Under 15 boys’ teams drawn from Manicaland, Matabeleland North, Harare, Masvingo and Mashonaland Central provinces are gunning for glory in what has become one of the country’s biggest youth sporting tournaments.

Eleven soccer teams are vying for the girls’ under 18 trophy. A netball tournament has been added to the menu this year, courtesy of the partnership with PSH, hence the rebranding from just a soccer tournament to a sports extravagance that is fused with anti-Gender-Based Violence and anti-drugs campaigns.

Binga Academy won the hearts of many Mutare fans, who put aside their home partisanship to chant “Binga bhoraaaa” at every touch in appreciation of the slick passing that characterised the team’s play at last year’s tournament.

“Everyone in Mutare has been so supportive, it is more like our home now,” said Pride Ngwenya, the club coach and founder. “The football atmosphere was so great last year and we are proud of the fans that supported us to the extent of composing a song for us, so this time we plead with them to continue standing in the corner of the boys from the valley.”

The tournament is in its seventh edition and this year received a major boost when PSH decided to come in as a partner through its Love Shouldn’t Hurt Campaign, funded by the Embassy of Sweden.

The campaign is geared towards teaching men and women in knowledge, motivation and the urgency needed to eliminate violence in relationships and in the community by creating an army of young people who shun violence in their communities. The campaign aims to do this by increasing knowledge of the negative implications of violence from individual through to community level, inspiring perpetrators and survivors to resolve conflict in a non-violent manner and making non-violence appear manly and attractive.

The decision by PHS to use sports, as well as roping in artists such as Freeman, Winky D, Freeman, Seh Calaz, Holy Ten, Amara Brown and Sandra Ndebele has propelled the campaign into a nationwide movement popular with youths, who are most vulnerable to vices such as drug abuse, child marriages and gender based violence.

The Mutare tournament will see Freeman and gospel crooner Mambo Dhuterere rocking fans for free and spreading messages against Gender-Based Violence, drug abuse and child marriages.

“It will be a day to remember, (but) children should not be married and love should not be forced,” said Freeman ahead of the tournament.

PSH will provide free cervical cancer screening, male circumcision and HIV testing and counselling during the two day extravaganza to be held at venues in the populous Sakubva and Dangamvura suburbs.

SAYWHAT, a public health social movement, will also pitch tents at the match venues in the populous Sakubva and Dangamvura suburbs to provide youth-oriented messages.

“This is going to be sports with positive vibes,” said Blessing Mutsaka, an executive of Mai Hondo Soccer Associates, a community volunteer group organising the event.

He paid tribute to teams such as Binga Academy, whose commitment has gone a long way in turning what started as a provincial competition into a national event.

For Binga Academy, it is all about giving youngsters a chance at life.

Through partnerships with a local teachers’ organisation, the academy is involved in anti-substance abuse campaigns in Binga and has also managed to send back to school 20 children that had dropped out, said Ngwenya, the club coach and founder.

“Everyone in Binga has a passion for the beautiful game and for the positive development of young people. That is what pushes us to travel long distances for such big tournaments. We wish to give the kids that much needed exposure to grow in the game,” Ngwenya told ZimLive.

But it has not been an easy ride for a team formed in 2018, stopped due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and regrouped in 2020 without the massive sponsorship enjoyed by other clubs backed by corporate power.

To travel to Mutare for the event, players will most likely use public transport, said Ngwenya, appealing to sponsors to chip in and help the young players realise their dreams.

“We are still a small, growing entity that wishes to be recognised. Our aspirations are to be one of the best academies in the country despite the fact that we are from a rural set up,” he said, before paying tribute to the people of Binga for their unwavering support.

“To the baTonga people, we salute the support you have always given the boys, we will make you proud,” he said.