The Petra Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ansa McAl through its Smalta brand and Health 2000 Guyana incorporated, officially launched the inaugural Primary schools female 11 and under football tournament yesterday at the Girls Guide Pavilion.
The event, which will feature 12 schools from the Georgetown district competing in an initial group format, is scheduled to run from November 14th-December 13th at the Girls Guide ground.
The participating schools will be divided into three groups of four with the top two finishers from each group progressing to the knockout stage. Also earning a berth to the knockout round will be the best two third ranked teams.
Schools expected to compete are St. Margaret’s, West Ruimveldt Primary, Tucville Primary, North Georgetown Primary, South Ruimveldt Primary, St. Pius Primary, Stella Maris Primary, Marian Academy, F.E. Pollard, Enterprise Primary, East La Penitence Primary, and St. Stephen’s Primary.
Winners of the event will receive team uniforms, the championship trophy and medals while the second, third and fourth placed sides with walk away with the respective positional accolade, balls and medals.
In an effort to foster the participating school’s preparation for the championships, each school will receive two balls from the Petra Organization.
Troy Mendonca, Petra Organization Co-Director during a brief address said that the launching of the event marks a historic day for the organization while noting “Our major contribution to football is in the area of youth development.”
He added that the organization currently facilitates the running of the several male oriented school tournaments and that “questions have been asked about the female aspect.”
He noted that the launching of such an event could not have been possible without the assistance of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ansa McAl and Health 2000 Guyana Inc. and that his organization is grateful for the support.
Mendonca noted that while the event will only feature 12 competing schools in its inaugural edition, he expects the event to go from strength to strength and that the participating number of schools to increase based on the response.
Chief Education Officer Olatto Sam during brief remarks said:” I want to congratulate the Petra Organization for demonstrating that they are serious about sport development.”
Sam noted that the launch of the event is a clear indication of the group’s commitment to the development of youth football.
He noted that he is very concerned that none of the other entities involved in the sport have come forward to the ministry with a comprehensive plan or program for the development of our young people.
Sam further said that lip service is no longer going to work and that we need to create a progressive program which will help to bring forth balanced and educated sporting individuals who can become great ambassadors of the nation.
“This is a conscious effort by the organization and we are looking forward to the commencement of the tournament,” he said.
Darshanie Yussuf, Ansa McAl Public Relations Officer (PRO) said: “Ansa McAl and I are excited to be a part of this for the reason that is great to have a tournament for girls. We have been doing this with other programmes but to do it at this age range is fantastic.”
She further thanked the ministries of education and health for supporting these programmes stating:” I know girls are much more polite than boys in sports but I still expect it to be a competitive tournament.”
Ministry of Health representative Dr. Janice Woolford said that the main objective of the ministry is to see healthy children and that the tournament will provide the physical aspect of the child’s development.
She noted that while the tournament will be featuring only 12 schools, she hopes that it can advance and be expanded to a much larger number in the future. “We will continue to be collaboration with Petra and on behalf of the Ministry we look forward to the start of the event” she added.
