The Director of Education Services for Dowa, Christopher Kumikundi, has praised the Sports for Protection (S4P) programme for its role in strengthening social cohesion and mental wellbeing among young people at Dzaleka and surrounding host communities.
Speaking after a stakeholder progress review meeting, Kumikundi said the programme uses sport as a transformative and protective tool. It aims to improve the psychosocial wellbeing, protection, resilience and social inclusion of children and adolescents aged 10–24 in the camp and nearby communities.
“So far, the implementation has been quite good because we have seen youths of various backgrounds coming together, participate in sports, interact and share experiences in safe spaces. All these are crucial in the psychological healing and wellbeing of the youth,” he said.
He commended the implementing partners — Plan Malawi, the Dzaleka Sports Association, coordinating council sectors and UNHCR — for their support, while calling for continued collaboration to further improve the welfare of children in the camp and host communities.
UNHCR Project Associate Tapiwa Mkandawire Gumbi reported strong progress under the programme, which is funded by UNHCR in partnership with LIV Golf. Key achievements so far include the development of training manuals, golf orientation sessions for Dzaleka youth, the training of 40 netball coaches and umpires, and an awareness campaign that has already encouraged more young people to join different sports.
Given UNHCR’s currently limited presence at the camp, the organisation also plans to orient the district council on programming related to Dzaleka. The goal is to deepen understanding of international protection, refugee and humanitarian principles, and approaches to working with forcibly displaced persons in Malawi — supporting the council to deliver integrated social protection services and advance the inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers into national systems.
