Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Collin Matiza
29 October 2008
Harare — THE International Olympic Committee have once again given their thumbs up to Zimbabwe to continue playing their role as the training ground for sports administrators from fellow English-speaking African countries.
The IOC, through the Olympic Solidarity Movement, recently indicated to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee that they would like them to continue hosting interns from fellow African National Olympic Committees.
This was revealed yesterday by ZOC chief executive Robert Mutsauki as he introduced the latest beneficiary of that programme -- Mohamed Abdo -- the administrative assistant to the secretary-general of the Somali Olympic Committee.
Abdo arrived in Harare from the war-torn East African country last Thursday for a two-month internship programme at ZOC.
He becomes the third administrator from an African NOC to be attached to ZOC for the past two years under the Olympic Solidarity-funded internship programme.
The other two were Aaron Nawuoh of Liberia and Malawi's Naomi Chinatu who underwent an internship programme at ZOC in 2006 and 2007.
This was all part of an initial three-year agreement between the IOC and ZOC, which was signed in 2006 and allows the local Olympic organisation to engage an official or member from a fellow African NOC for a three-month internship programme.
But that agreement was recently extended by the Olympic Solidarity for the next quadrennial, paving the way for the arrival of Abdo in Harare last Thursday.
Abdo who, however, will be attached to ZOC for two months instead of three due to commitments back
home in Somalia, was looking forward to his stay in Zimbabwe.
He will be working as the business operations officer under the ZOC general manager.
Abdo said he hoped his attachment with ZOC would help him in widening his capabilities as an Olympic sports administrator.
"In fact, I understand that up until March 2002, ZOC didn't have their own headquarters but they now have one with (10) full-time staff members.
"So, I would like to learn from ZOC on how they managed to have a headquarters of their own within a short space of time because back home in Somalia we don't have the same structures.
"In Somalia, I am the only full-time employee of the Somali Olympic Committee who works under the secretary-general while others come in as volunteers which is not the case here in Zimbabwe.
"In Somalia, we have never had anyone who has qualified for the finals of any discipline at the Olympic Games and we would like to take a leaf off Zimbabwe who are now a permanent fixture on the Olympic Games medals table."
Abdo said at the last Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in August this year, Somalia had only two athletes -- a female 200m sprinter and a male 5 000m runner -- who both failed to make it to the finals.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
