Thursday 29th July 2021 will go down in history for the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) and the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority, trading as Solomon Power as both parties officially launched the Iumi Play programme targeting children at the grassroots level to bring football development to the 50 constituencies in the country.
A colourful launching programme was held at the iconic Lawson Tama stadium to mark the birth of a new era for SIFF since its establishment in 1971 and to be exact under the leadership of SIFF President William Lai and his executive.
Guest of honour, Minister of Youth, Women and Children Affairs, Hon. Freda Rangirei said she is honoured to represent her government on a very special event that will touch the lives of children in the country through football.
The government minister stressed that the Iumi Play programme is aligning with the DCGA policies to improve the livelihood of children of our beloved Solomon Islands.
“Under our policies is provincial implementation strategy and children policy key areas are protected and development which is what SIFF and Solomon Power are doing,” Hon. Rangirei said.
“If all government ministries developed and partner with NGOs, stakeholders, business houses and all churches work collaborate and partnership together. We can be able to protect, develop and empower the children and youth of our nation.
“Solomon Islands government supports this kind of initiative that is the Iumi Play programme which is a grassroots football programme purposely for empowering our next generation of footballers.
“This is profoundly aligning to the government policies and I want to thank SIFF and Solomon Power to come up with this programme.”
SIFF President William Lai said a country so passionate about football needs to have a development pathway focusing on the children.
Mr Lai added that our passion and love for the world game has helped us in the past to punch beyond our weight despite not having a clear pathway to develop the game from an early age.
“I believe this programme should have been done in the past but we played football in the past just because of our love and passion to succeed,” he said.
“So my executive tries to make this programme nationwide to set up a foundation that children can player football early on in their upbringing with accredited coaches and proper equipment.
“Our vision of the Iumi Play is developing tomorrow’s quality footballers and citizens because we know that not all children coming through this programme will end up playing at the higher level but one day will become the next prime minister or a top athlete in other sports in 20 years.
“This programme is not only for Honiara but covers all our provinces from Temotu to Choiseul so that children nationwide could have the chance to play football. As leaders, it is our role to look after our future generation.”
Chairman of Solomon Power, David Quan said the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) is honoured and privileged by the opportunity given by SIFF to partner in the Iumi Play initiative.
“This very much aligns to our vision and mission as well at Solomon Power we are about nation-building and as well our service obligations,” the Solomon Power chairman stated.
“We are part of the community and a State-Owned Enterprise that has the biggest representation in terms of our geographical spread as well as our presence throughout the country in all provinces except for Renbel but we will be in Renbel soon.
“So it’s logical and fitting we have this partnership with SIFF so that we could roll out together with other stakeholders and of course the Solomon Islands Government through the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders to empower and also prepare our kids and future of this country so that they are fit, disciplined and have a sense of purpose.
The launch was the second milestone of the programme after the sponsorship agreement signed between SIFF and Solomon Power on Tuesday 13th July 2021 at Auki Primary School in Auki with the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) becoming the major sponsor of the Iumi Play football grassroots programme.
The sponsorship is totalling up to one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) which will be paid in four instalments for the role out of the programme, training of instructors, festivals and reporting of the event. The sponsorship exhibits a sense of social responsibility for Solomon Power by having regard to the interests of the community in which it operates.
The agreement between Solomon Power and SIFF is a worthy cause as the Iumi Play programme provide an avenue by which the sponsor and recipient can work together to advance their common goals and benefit the community especially aspiring footballers in the rural areas.
SIFF Technical Director Moses Toata said the Iumi Play Grassroots programme is a pathway that will create a level playing field for children in the country to play football at an early age from 6 to 12 years old.
The rollout will start next month in selected football centres likely to be in Malaita and Western provinces.
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