04 Sep 2019

n an effort to develop their brand further, Lobatse-based women’s league team, Zodiac Collabo Girls, will this weekend stage a mountain walk and gala dinner in collaboration with Lobatse Town Council.

The mountain walk, which is in its second edition, takes place on Saturday morning at the Peleng Hill.

The objective of the event is to raise funds for the team and the Mayor’s Charity Fund.

The event is further expected to raise awareness of heritage sites in the town and promote Lobatse as a tourist destination.

Cuba ambassador to Botswana, Patricia Pego Guerra will be the guest walker.

The team’s chairperson, Lawrence Nare explained in an interview that they decided on hosting a mountain walk every year as a way of reaching out to the community.

“We want to interact with the community so that they are aware of our existence and support us. It is through support from the community that we will be able to grow and find sponsors,” said Nare. He said registration for the mountain walk will be from 5:30am at Extension Gunners ground in Peleng. “After registration the mountain walk will commence from the Gunners ground at 6:30am and we are expecting it to last four hours,” he added.

Nare said the mountain walk would be followed by a football friendly match between Collabo Girls and a select team from embassies in Botswana.

He said the match would be played at Gunners ground at 11am.

The chairperon further said there would be a fundraising gala dinner at Lobatse town park at 7:30pm.

He said tickets for the gala dinner included a standard ticket for P100, silver for 10 people costing P5 000 and corporate at P10 000 for 10 people.

Collabo Girls were founded a couple of years ago and affiliated with Botswana Football Association (BFA) in 2017.

In the 2018/19 season, they made their debut in the women’s football league, competing in the southern regional league.

The team went on to win the league in its first season. It also won the independence tournament last year and the Women’s Day competition this year in Lobatse by beating Township Rollers ladies team in the final.

“The aim of our team is to uplift the girl child. There is a stereotype against girls that they cannot play football like men. We don’t just give our players a footballing platform, but also assist them with life skills and finding employment. We have assisted eight of our players to find employment,” said Nare. ENDS