Footballers awarded Hospitality scholarships
The German government, through its development agencies, GIZ, TUI Care Foundation and Futouris, awarded eight girls scholarships that have been part of the various Girls programme at the NFA Girls Centre.
They will start with Restaurant Management studies at Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy in January 2017 until the end of the year. Initially 19 girls from Katutura received their certificates this week at the Namibia Football Association (NFA) girls’ centre with eight lucky ones selected to further studies in the hospitality field after completing a three months preparatory course with the Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy.
The eight girls who were awarded with scholarships are; Anna Nghisheefa, Jenny Mento, Sadia Garoes, Melisa Eises, Victoria Kambonde, Gweneth Naruses, Christiana Kohlman and Anna Marie Shikusho.
The Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy is accredited by the Namibia Qualification Authority (NQA) and tutored the girls in theoretical as well as practical on waitressing, housekeeping and cooking to mention a few.
The official graduation and handing over of eight scholarships and NFA Secretary General, Barry Rukoro stated that the awarding of the scholars marks the beginning of great journeys for the girls.
“We want young people to stand up from the ashes of Katutura and make better people of themselves,” he added.
Although the girls were excited and happy to have gotten the scholarships, they all agreed that it was not an easy thing to achieve.
“The most challenging of the course was the Food and beverages, mainly because we had to practice waitressing, within a short period of time,” said Kohlman.
Garoes found bartending the most challenging due to alcohol mixing which was something new to her, and fellow trainee Shikusho enjoyed it the most adding that “it’s a great and fun way to entertain people and attract them”.
The establishment of a Girls Centre in Namibia was agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Namibia Football Association (NFA), the German Football Association (DFB), the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Services (MSYNS), GIZ, Football and Athletics Association of Westphalia, Germany (FLVW), for implementation of the programme “Safe spaces to empower girls through sport”.
Amongst its objectives, the centre also focus on the development of a “sport for development” tourism product for local and international tourists visiting Windhoek and the provision of internships and/or practical training opportunities through job attachment programs with affiliated German tourism industry association companies such as of Futouris and the TUI Care Foundation that supports sustainable tourism projects as part of TUI group’s sustainability strategy).
