Israel Saria
Preparations of the national women soccer team (Twiga Stars) for the coming African Women Championship (AWC) preliminary tie against Namibia were given a timely boost yesterday when PrecisionAir made a donation of air tickets worth 27.8m/-.
Speaking at a hand over ceremony held at the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) offices, the company’s marketing manager, Tuntufye Mwambusi, said they decided to come in and assist the national team because Twiga Stars have been performing well at international tournaments.
Twiga Stars are not new on the international football stage. In 2010 they played in the African Women Championship finals which were held in South Africa and July last year the team emerged third at the Council of South African Football Associations (COSAFA) women’s tournament which was held in Zimbabwe.
September last year the team also competed at the All Africa Games which were held in Maputo, Mozambique.
He said the air tickets will able Twiga Stars travel from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg and back to Dar es Salaam on their aircraft.
Mwambusi said his company plans to cooperate with TFF in flying Twiga Stars and Under 20 and 17 national teams (Ngorongoro Heroes and Serengeti Boys respectively) to destinations where their aircraft travel.
This is not the first time for PrecisionAir to help the football national team as the company offered tickets at a reduced price to Ngorongoro Heroes which competed at the COSAFA tournament which was held in Botswana last year.
Speaking after receiving the donation, TFF secretary general Angetile Osiah thanked the company for the gesture, saying this is a step in the right direction and timely shot in the arm.
He also thanked the National Service (JKT) for donating a camp to the women’s football national team.
Osiah also disclosed that a contingent of 25 Twiga Stars’ players and officials will leave the country on January 12 and returns home three days later.
The secretary general asked other companies to emulate PrecisionAir gesture and disclosed that the team still needs more funds to fly the team from Johannesburg to Windhoek, Namibia.
He said they initially needed 36m/- to fly the team to and from Namibia.
Osiah also asked companies, organizations and individuals to help the team with accommodation costs and allowances for players and the technical bench.
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