2022 started with a fantastic U12 football festival showcasing the amazing local talent and great organisation by Wachisa and the other senior coaches. The donated kits and new goals/nets made the event even more colourful and special. Eight U12 teams played an 8 a side festival. Parents and the local community looked on and appreciated their efforts. A professional photographer took these great action shots and team pictures. Community Sports Leaders Africa will continue to support such amazing efforts to develop youth football.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected football worldwide. It is great to see things getting back to normal for football mad children all over the world. Community Sports Leaders Africa is planning our next visit to Chitipa, Northern Malawi in August 2023. There is a lot of fund raising to be done and plans made.

In March 2022, Rugby arrived in Chitipa for the first time curtesy of Malawi National Coach and player Jack Mphande. I had made contact with Jack a few months earlier via Facebook and made him an offer to visit Chitipa for ten days coaching. He accepted. I paid his transport and about £10 a day expenses. Rowland only managed to attract 7 participants which included himself, Wachisa and Loveness. Jack spent three days in Chitipa at Kawale FP school. Then Levison Mlambiya from the William Stewart Foundation came to collect him on his motorbike. Jack spent two more days with about 30 Young Coaches there. His reception was very positive and the pictures great. Jack will send me his plans to sustain his initial efforts and I will see how we can support.

Having seen the excitement surrounding Jack's visit, I only hoped Rugby would be encouraged by Rowland and Florence who are organising school sports. However the cynic in me looked back to the failure of the cricket project that had started with such enthusiasm back in 2018. Unfortunately, Rowland wasn't proactive enough and handed over the project to a local committee that proved inactive. The cage was rarely used, dismantled and stored badly with missing being stolen. The Malawi Cricket Union wanted the project to be a success after their initial interest but Rowland failed to send reports and make plans. I was disappointed.

However, Wachisa was proving a local legend in supporting youth football. I loved his communication, enthusiasm and real passion for what we was trying to do. He had galvanised eight football clubs together and they were receiving regular support from Community Sports Leaders Africa in terms of equipment and kits. Tony our Chitipa welder was asked to recycle the cricket cage into football goals.

At the end of March I saw a post on Facebook at made me proud. The 2022 'Youth Games' were being held in Blantyre and the North Eastern Education Division (NEED) had made it to the U15 boys football final against Central East. Rowland told me that the Youth Games were a joint Malawi School Sports Association and Sports Council yearly event. My thoughts immediately went back to 1999 and the very first MASSA secondary school football finals where the North select beat Central East 2-0. I had been there at the start of MASSA being formed. I had set up all the initial committee structures at zone, district and division level in the North. I had organised the inaugural event in the North. For the past 22 years these events had been happening. North were still dressed in Green.

At the start of April, the Chitipa District Sports Committee led by Chairman Albert Chihana, held a Presentation event for the winning teams during their football season. The donated Red Row Welfare kits were presented to U23 Champions Chitipa Hammers FC, U17 Champions Nyabinghe Warriors FC and a South Edinburgh CFC kit was given to the U14 Champions Young Stars FC.

The old cricket cage was finally being reborn as new goal posts. Wachisa and the committee had chosen Isyalikira Primary School as the venue to fix it. It is a fairly central venue for a lot of clubs on that side of Kawale. There was a presentation ceremony with the Head Teacher and others. This was the first ever set of metal goal posts at the school and a big event seen as clear progress. Tony still had enough poles and was busy making one mini goal for Levison at the William Stewart Foundation in Ibuluma.

Even though the cricket cage from 2018 was no more, I had been trying to encourage softball cricket since the 2018 course, festival and subsequent kit donation in April 2021. Florence Nyondo is the newly appointed District Education Office Sports Officer. Her job was created in 2021. It was a post that I had been trying to encourage back in 1999/2000 when I was Northern Regional Sports Development Officer. So it had finally happened 21 years later. With some encouragement Florence held a Refresher Course in Softball Cricket ahead of a planned festival. I put Florence in touch with Arjun Menon from Cricket Malawi and he is keen to support Chitipa. Some primary schools managed cluster festivals which was great to see.

During the first few months of 2022, I had asked for feedback from the 8 clubs involved in the U12 football project and the 14 primary schools. Wachisa and Florence had held meetings and reported back. The feeling was positive and I was encouraged by the responses. The kit and equipment was much appreciated. The support with sporting infrastructure such as goal posts and netball posts was seen as a real development. The Senior and Young Coaches were keen to learn more through more refereeing and coaching courses and Wachisa was keen to get Football Association of Malawi involved. In terms of Teacher Training I felt there was a reluctance to attend courses without allowances. I thought it was best to leave this to Florence and Rowland in the future.

Finally, the netball posts being made by Tony Mwathunga materialised. They final got delivered to three of the schools. We even got a set made for The William Stewart Foundation in Ibuluma, Chisenga.