Devine Matare

Thousands turned up at Lunzu Primary School Grounds on Saturday the 9th of November to witness the final Netball & Football games being played in the GIE Sports Bonanza that began on the 26th of October involving 8 Secondary Schools from Lunzu and Chileka in Blantyre. The GIE Bonanza was initiated by RENAMA with funding from Hivos as one way of raising awareness and educating communities on sustainable energy systems and solutions available to mitigate the high rates of energy poverty in the Malawi. As games were being played, the RENAMA GIE team was also busy educating and disseminating messages to the thousands who were in the audience, additionally, exhibition stands were also erected by RENAMA and other partners who were showcasing different Solar and Cooking technologies that are readily available in Malawi. Another interesting activity that drew much attention was the cooking demonstration tent that was set up to give people a practical lesson in how much cleaner cookstoves save firewood and emit less smoke. At the end of the cooking demonstration a few from the audience had the opportunity to taste the food cooked and appreciate that there is no difference in the taste of the food that is cooked on a cleaner cookstove and one from the traditional open 3 stone fire as is widely believed.

Coming to the Sports, after an exctiting two weeks of both football and netball between the eight teams, it was now time for the 2 teams who progressed to the finals to battle it out for the ultimate GIE trophy and the prize money. In Netball, the battle was between St George Academy & Amazing Grace whilst in Football, Ngumbe Secondary School battled it out with St George Academy. However, before the Finals games were played, there was also a fight for 3rd place which saw Trinity Anglican overcoming Chigumukire CDSS by 26 baskets to 14 in the Netball match whilst Amazing Grace defeated Chigumukire CDSS after penalty shoot outs in a tightly contested game that ended 0-0 in regular time.

In the Final games, Amazing Grace came out victorious after scoring 31 baskets against St George Academy 22 baskets in a game that was exciting to watch and could have gone either way given the sterling performances that both teams showed on the day. Doreen Patel was the best player on the day whilst Leah Chikunkhu was the best shooter.

In the Football final game, Ngumbe secondary school cruised to a seemingly easy 3-0 win against St George Academy in a thrilling encounter that had fans glued to the action. Alfred scored 2 quick goals and Yamikani Ntalimanja sealed St Georges fate when he netted the 3rd goal and was also eventually selected to be the Man of the Match.

To spice the event, there was music and dance as well as perfomances from one of Malawis well know Comedians ‘Mr Jokes’ who also delivered cleverly crafted jokes with GIE messages.

All in all the event was a huge success, thousands came and were educated on Green & Inclusive Energy. It is hoped that other stakeholders and partners will replicate this initiative in other areas of Malawi. The GIE Bonanza was financed to the tune of MK3,500,000 and the winners in Football – Ngumbe Secondary School walked away with a GIE trophy and a prize valued at MK150,000 whilst in Netball – Amazing Grace walked away with a trophy and a prize valued at MK100,000 for their school.