Play Handball Supercup series in its third year – With Handball active for the sustainable development goal 13 “Climate Action” of the United Nations

Germany is co-organiser of the Handball World Championship in January. Two years later, in 2021, the World Championship will be hosted on the African continent. After 1999 in Egypt and 2005 in Tunisia, Egypt will host the World Cup for the second time.

The Play Handball Supercup series is still a long way from such a big tournament, but this year, there was a new pleasing development. In 2018, the tournament was played not only in South Africa but also for the first time in Kenya. The basic orientation has not changed. The Play Handball Supercup is and remains the first tournament series in Africa that combines sport with education and environmental protection. The motto is: More than handball! The aim is to reach young people with sport, to bring youth from different schools and cultural backgrounds together and to promote environmental awareness in combination with playing handball.

After two successful years in South Africa with over a thousand children from Cape Town and Johannesburg, PHZA in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) organized two more tournaments in South Africa and this year for the first time in townships.

On 20 October 2018 the Supercup 2018 took place at the Sinaba Sports Stadium in Daveyton, Gauteng and on 27 October 2018 at the Hindle Road Primary School Delft, Cape Flats in Cape Town, Western Cape. With 150 children (10 to 14 years) each, both Supercups were well attended.

In Daveyton, 14 school teams from Benoni, Soweto and Parktown in the Johannesburg area took part in a U12 and U14 Mixteam tournament as well as environmental activities and recycling tasks. In the U12 group, the Kgalema and Kuzimisela Primary School teams dominated the competition and competed in the finals, with Kgalema Primary School taking first place and Kuzimisela second. In the U14 Mix group both teams of the German School Johannesburg (DSJ) and the Ekurhuleni Academy reached the semi-finals. The final was won by DSJ I ahead of DSJ II.

In Delft, 12 schools and community organizations from Cape Town and the surrounding area competed in the U14 Mix Team Tournament. The competition was dominated by teams from the Franschhoek Community Sports Centre (FCSC) and Gateway Primary School, who dominated the matches during the tournament. These two teams made it to the Supercup final, which Franschhoek won. “The tournament was a lot of fun for our children, there are not many opportunities to play handball. I hope we will have a Western Cape Handball League in the future,” said Thabang Mphatoe, coach of the winning team.

Besides the hype about the handball games, the participants were encouraged to keep the venues clean. PHZA therefore cooperated with Waste-ED, an environmental organisation, to ensure that all handball events were climate-neutral and zero waste. This means that no waste ends up in landfills and that reusable or easily recyclable local products are used at the events. On the day of the tournament Waste-ED manned and used their 3 ‘bin’ system station to educate the participants on items being thrown away and making sure there was proper waste separation. With over 350 participants in South Africa, the organisers were able to compost 15 kg of food waste, recycle 15 kg of clean paper and plastic collected at the venue and divert 59 kg of waste from the landfill by producing 27 ECOBRICKs (plastic bottles filled with non-recyclable plastic) over the two tournament days.  “Waste is a resource, all we need to do is change our view to see it as that” – was the message that Candice Mostert, Director of Waste-ED, was able to share to the young players through the ‘resource’ recycling stations at this year’s PLAY HANDBALL tournaments.

The whole handball & environment programme emphasis is on educating young South Africans to live more sustainably and environmentally responsible within their communities. Therefore, Play Handball in cooperation with the LFG Handball of the German Sports University Cologne and Waste-ED has developed an educational game series “PLAY FAIR for the ENVIRONMENT”, which was presented at this year’s tournament. In addition, teachers and coaches were first empowered with a train-the-trainer workshop in handball coaching and environmental issues to carry out the training back in their respective schools. Educational modules include information on how to use resources, such as water and energy more wisely and how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. One exemplar of the manual was given by Ms Nicola Scholl, Founder of PHZA, to the President of the South African Handball Federation Mr. Ally Pole, who honoured the event with his presents.

The local partner and co-ordinator Brain Bongani Mdhlalose from Sport Initiative Projects values the PLAY HANDBALL Supercup as an event that helps building a healthy and active community. “We all had a great experience especially the community of Daveyton. PHZA and all the volunteers did an amazing job. There is a demand for such events in the near future as it will help reduce as well criminal activities, substance abuse and raise awareness. We are planning to introduce the same programme with high schools early next year.”

In Kenya, the PLAY HANDBALL Supercup was held for the first time to educate coaches and ultimately youth through handball about environmentally friendly behaviour and waste management. Kenya is the first country outside South Africa to organise and host such an event. The Kenyan office of Play Handball (PHKE) in cooperation with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Nairobi and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Kenya in Kisumu, Western Kenya, organized this first ecological handball program. The Play Handball Supercup was preceded by a three-day train-the-trainer workshop on environmental education, which took place from 10 to 12 October 2018 at the YMCA Centre in Kisumu. The Supercup took place on 13 October 2018 at the Jomo Kenyatta Kisumu sports field with the title “Waste is Wealth”.

The 25 participants, consisting of teachers, social workers and coaches, were first introduced to handball coaching and how they can playfully approach environmental issues to children and young people in order to ultimately implement these methods in their respective organisations and communities. On Friday 12 February, all participants went to disadvantaged and underserved communities in Kisumu and carried out a clean-up activity. Back at the workshop site, the trainers, social workers and teachers showed what they had learned in the workshop by separating waste and stuffing all non-recyclable plastics into plastic bottles called ecobricks. The end result of this cleaning action was a stool made of ecobricks, which was presented the next day at the tournament.

On 13 October 2018, over 100 children aged 10 to 14 took part in the first handball and environmental tournament in Kisumu. The organizers were pleased to welcome the first secretary of the Ambassador of the Republic of Germany to Kenya, Dr. Alexander Puk, to the opening of the handball tournament. In addition to exciting handball matches, the participants were encouraged to keep the venue clean by collecting waste and throwing it into the trash cans or stuffing it into ecobricks. Unlike the Supercups in South Africa, the entire tournament in Kenya was organised and run by the workshop participants, led by the Play Handball team. While some took on the role of timekeeper and referee, others led a team as coaches or were responsible for the recycling information stand. Between handball matches, the coaches took their teams to the recycling station and told them what they had learned during the workshop, how to separate waste, how to make compost or how long it takes to decompose various types of waste. One of the most attractive elements that attracted the attention of all participants was the ecobricks stool made the day before.

“The children loved the stool. At first they saw me walking around with plastic waste. But when they realized that the garbage was actually a nice stool, they all wanted to sit on it and build their own. On the same day we made a second small stool with collected garbage at the venue,” says Nicola Scholl, founder of Play Handball. “The joy and enthusiasm of the children on the handball field and beyond at the eco-trail and recycling station shows that our concept works,” Scholl evaluates the tournament series as a successful integration of education and sport.

How can you help? Find out more about how on the Play Handball website: http://play-handball.org/en/donate/.

Help as a voluntary handball coach in our volunteer program! Information can be found here:  http://play-handball.org/en/volunteer/ or simply send an informal request to info@play-handball.org.

The Results

Sinaba Sports Stadium in Daveyton, Gauteng., Südafrika

U12 Mix Tournament:

1st Place: Kgalema Primary School, 2nd Place: Kuzimisela Primary School, 3rd Place: Mdelwa Hlongwane Primary School, 4th Place: DSJ

U14 Mix Tournament:

1st Place: DSJ I, 2nd Place: DSJ II, 3rd and 4th Place: Ekurhuleni Academy; Other teams: Inkatha-Ka-Zulu Primary School I and II, Dumehlezi Primary School, Mdelwa Hlongwane Primary School, Kuzimisela Primary School

Hindle Road Primary School, Delft, Western Cape, in Kapstadt

Ranking of the U14 Mix tournament:

1st Place: Franschhoek Community Sports Centre,

2nd Place: Gateway Primary School,

3rd Place: Hindle Road Primary School and

4th Place: German International School;

Other teams that were present: Africa Jam Community Outreach, Levana Primary School, Zerilda Primary School I & II, Masonwabe Primary School, Teen & Child Development, Abedare Primary School, Leiden Primary School and The Hague Primary School.