HARARE – Top-order batsman and former Zimbabwe U19 Cricket captain Tino Mawoyo has taken sports development a notch higher with the recent launch of a sports development organisation.
Aptly named after the founder, the Tino Mawoyo Foundation seeks to achieve education and social development through sport, create a conducive environment for under-privileged children to showcase their sporting talent and empower sports people of all ages, disciplines, race or gender.
In 2017, Mawoyo launched an annual junior development cricket festival in his home town Mutare, featuring rural and peri-urban schools in the border town. The Tino Mawoyo Foundation now becomes the umbrella body that will run the festival as well as other programmes designed to meet the Foundation’s objectives.
Run by a five-member board, the Foundation is not only confined to cricket but targets upcoming and accomplished sports people of all sporting disciplines.
“I believe the Foundation will offer a platform for young sports people to display their skill and learn about sport as a career. Programmes that focus on HIV and Aids education, business and financial management and the importance of nutrition and health are lined-up. The foundation will also run seminars on the ills of corruption and doping in order to promote integrity among sports people,” said Mawoyo.
Mawoyo added that the Foundation will also offer a medium for the corporate sector to invest in sport and infrastructure development in communities.
Mawoyo has hit the ground running with the awarding of a scholarship to Mutare Boys High pupil Takudzwa Nyamugure who was the Player of the Festival at the 2017 development festival in Mutare. The Foundation is paying for his tuition, uniforms and books for the whole year as well cricket equipment for the young batsman who dreams of playing for the Chevrons one day.
Mawoyo paid tribute to his parents, Florence and Takura Mawoyo, and his two brothers for their support throughout his career and the birth of the Tino Mawoyo Foundation.
The event saw the auctioning of some of the world’s top cricket players’ shirts such as Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Alistair Cook and Shahid Afridi.
Chevrons team manager Lovemore Banda compered the launch which was also attended by other cricket personalities such as international umpire Jeremiah Matibiri, Hamilton Masakadza, Elton Chigumbura, Chamu Chibhabha, and former Zimbabwe representatives Douglas Hondo, Grant Flower and Dirk Viljoen.
