The Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) has formulated a new Policy called Safe Guarding Athletes and officials from Abuse in Sports. To raise awareness, MOC on Tuesday held meetings in Lilongwe and Mzuzu Targeting 200 athletes, Coaches, head of Institutions and Team Managers
Speaking at Kamuzu Institute for Sports, MOC Treasurer Henry Sakala said research showed that athletes have been abused in one way or another.
“As MOC, we thought of coming up with this policy and want to sensitize athletes in the presence of officials and other interested parties since in most cases athletes are abused by their own coaches, officials or fellow athletes.”
He Said
Sakala said the policy is accepted worldwide with key areas formulated by the International Olympic Committee, but tailored to suit Malawian Culture.
Sakala, who was being assisted by Osborne Banda during the symposium, said “We are focusing on safe sport, privacy to protect athletes from abuse, harm and degrading treatment. We have cases in this country where athletes are abused sexually as favors to include them in the squad and also insulting female players or athletes that the look like men.
“Sometimes athletes, especially young ones are touched in appropriate places during training by coaches. We want to stop such abuses through this policy.”
He Said
Takondwa Chayang’anamuno, who represented Central Region Basketball League, said they have benefited from the training. She said: “We have learned ways on how to be safe as an athlete and also on how to prevent and protect ourselves from abuses.
“It is good to learn on how we can conduct ourselves because we might get in trouble when traveling to other Countries not knowing that our actions might be interpreted as abuse.”
She Said