The 8^th edition of the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games that just ended in Gaborone, Botswana was a highlight in history for introducing two distinct features as the additions to the whole games experience for the athletes and the fans. During the games, a digital App (Region5games)  was introduced for supporters to follow the event digitally and for athletes to track their performance using their smartphones. This innovation made it easy for supporters and fans of sport to follow the news and results of the games and the Medal’s standing was updated and issued daily.

The second innovation of the games was the introduction of the Women’s Leadership training that was conducted with a local partner, Tsosi Magang Sports Trust.

The CEO of AUSC Region 5, Mr Stanley Mutoya said “women empowerment in sport is one of our key mandate as the organisation. In the structures of our organisation, Women In Sport Committee is charged to come up with initiatives to improve positions of women in sport and elevate them by capacitating them to ascend to leadership positions. For the 8^th edition that just ended in Gaborone, we had a vision to have a training session for our young women participating.

Tsosi Magang Sports Trust made history during the course of Region 5 Youth Games Gaborone 2018 when it hosted an inaugural Women’s leadership programme.

Initially the workshop was aimed to empower girls’ captains of all the nine countries that were participating in the Games. The Trust Founder, Tsosi Magang said the trust is meant to empower women in sports leadership positions.

She said together with Dr Tshepang Tshube they decided to include boys. Magang said the idea was to introduce the participants to the concept of leadership and make them realise that as captains they are leaders.

“I was a captain for Kutlwano volleyball club for almost 12 years but I realised that I was a leader towards the end. It was then that I started to realise that I should portray myself as a leader even outside the field of play,” Magang said.

She said that she could approach a referee and complain on behalf of her team and she could seat down with her coach and strategies for a match.

She said even after a game they would analyse it with her coach.

“As young people they should understand leadership. Our role was to guide them but the challenge we had was time which was not sufficient,” she said.

She said in future captains should arrive early when games such as Youth Games are held.

“We have a challenge because our captains are shy and reserved. It was good to see them being able to contribute to the workshop. Even the visually impaired athletes participated. We even had Angola and Mozambique participants. There was on who is a member of a Youth Parliament in Mozambique,” said the excited Magang.

Meanwhile, Magang said Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 has shown interest in working with the Trust moving forward. She said Lesotho and Namibia have requested the Trust to conduct such workshops in their countries whenever they are ready.

“When women get into sports leadership positions, they find that their male counterparts are a step ahead of them. We want to change the landscape. We want to empower them with in-depth management skills,”

she said.

She said the Trust always has monthly discussions, which are meant to discuss different issues affecting women.

Meanwhile, Magang said at the beginning of the year, she organised a mentorship programme, which was attended by 50 women.

Furthermore, Magang said she was grateful for the opportunity she got from the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and AUSC Region 5 office.