2025 has started well. By mid February, the rainy season is about mid way through. Lots of people are in the fields at this time of year. The 2024 Chitipa FAM youth leagues are finished and final positions are announced. Trophies are awarded to the winners of the U14/U16 and U21 leagues. 

U21 Champions were Santos FC. 

In March, two sports training courses were planned ahead of the visit to Chitipa in August. A Fitness course looking at components of fitness and the relevant tests. 30 stopwatches were bought with funds from Lottie's Way. A Softball Cricket course was devised looking at basic cricket skills and some fun team games. The kit would get to Chitipa as my luggage allowance on Rwanda Air. 

Day trip to Easter Road Edinburgh and the home of Hibernian FC to meet old friend Paul Doig. Collected 100's of green shirts and shorts of all sizes, over 30 long sleeved training tops and a variety of other kit. 

The end of April saw an U12 football festival. 9 boys teams and 6 girls teams took part. Big news is that the next festival will be an U12 girls joint football and netball festival.    

Coach Wachisa in May was in Blantyre for the first and second module of the CAF B coaching course that we have sponsored him to attend. 

On the 9th May the Bananabox Trust container was packed and left for Ekwendeni. It is due to arrive in mid August. By the start of September the container had been off loaded in Beira, Mozambique and was heading to Lilongwe. 

In August I was visiting Chitipa for the first time in 6 years. To coincide with my visit Wachisa and Albert organised an U12 boys and girls festival.  Ten boys and 6 girls teams attended. It was a great start to the trip. Each team's senior coach attended with at least 2 young coaches. 

We held a Senior and Young Coaches Refresher coaching course. 11 senior coaches and 22 established young coaches attended. The 2 day course involved a theory session and a practical session on day one delivered by Wachisa based on what he had learned on his CAF B course. On day 2 the coaches planned and delivered sessions to their own U12 boys. The atmosphere was fantastic. 

I had designed a fitness testing course a few months previous and now it was time to deliver it to the coaches. Each element of fitness was discussed and the test outlined. Each participant did the test and recorded their scores. As a follow up they were then challenged to test 5 of their own players and feedback. 

Each club was asked to identify 2 new young coaches able to attend and become future U12 coaches. A course was held for 22 new identified Young Coaches. It was a 2 day course followed by an U12 festival.  Wachisa delivered a great theory session on the qualities of a good coach, how to plan a session and much more. The practical involved 6 session plans I had first delivered back in 2017. The course was a success and the final 8 team festival a great way to round off my visit. 

In late September, the 73 boxes of kit, balls and equipment finally arrived in Mzuzu ready for Wachisa to collect. The kit will really inspire the clubs, schools and players who have got involved in the project. 

As soon as Wachisa got back to Chitipa, he was on a bus south to Blantyre to finish module 3 of the CAF B course. The theory was tough he said and then a week later in Karonga he did his practical assessment.  

By September the boxes were being opened and some kit was being used as incentives. 

In December a new U19 league was established. 8 of the 9 teams were already involved in the U12 project. New kits were presented to the teams ahead of the league starting.   

The U14 league finished before Christmas with Young Stars FC the Champions again for a 2nd year running. Wachisa's Nyabinghi Warriors came 6th but he was impressed with his developmental side. 

Christmas Eve saw the final U12 festival of the year. Twelve teams attended and new kits were given out. There was news from Albert Chihana that FAM are so impressed with the U12 project in Chitipa, that in 2026 they are sponsoring a league. The first of it's kind in Malawi.