By Edwin Mbewe
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Over 400 volunteers who were recruited to execute different tasks during the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) region 5 Youth games Lilongwe 2022 on Sunday gathered together at Bingu upper stadium to bid farewell.
The ceremony was organized by the Region 5 Youth games Lilongwe 2022 Local organizing committee as a token of appreciation for the good job well executed by the volunteers.
Lisungu Banda, Local Organizing Committee Chief Operations Officer, hailed the volunteers for the heart showcased by allowing to work for the company and make the games happen.
She said without the volunteers, the committee would have had many problems as it was one of the biggest event Malawi has hosted as a country.
“This is very important event because in sports you can not work alone,Volunteers are key component when it comes to Sports.The team that we had was all hardworking and we know we can not appreciate the way they deserved hence a farewell ceremony as a reward.
“We have awarded them with medals and certificates just to show them how appreciative we are as Local Organizing Committee. The games have been ran successfully and we are very happy as LOC. We had very dedicated technical, Volunteers and all stakeholders who took part.
“The event has been success, this was an international event and the volunteers can use this on their CV in securing some jobs”, Banda explained.
The Chairman for the Volunteers Chifundo Tenthani described the journey as hectic as it was a long process to recruit the 400.
He said he is happy that they executed their job beyond expectations.
“You see without these volunteers, games could have been a hustle to handle,but you see fellow Malawians very patriotic offered their services for the success of the games and of course for the success of Mother Malawi as a country “, says Tenthani.
The 400 Volunteers were categorized into clusters which were Marketing, Accreditation, Transport, Security, Catering, Protocol,Game villages just to mention but a few.
The Volunteers marched within the running track perimeters together with the 11 participating countriesat Bingu National Stadium,as part of the closing ceremony after the final match between Zambia and South Africa in the boys’ category which,Zambia won by one nil.
Malawi was hosting the 10th edition of the AUSC region 5 games after failing to do the same in 2003 when the games were established.
The games in Malawi have been played under the theme IGNITING THE AFRICAN DREAM.
Mozambique will host the 11th edition in two years time in Maputo.