Coca-Cola Kenya has announced that it has embarked on an environmental behavior change campaign involving COPA Coca-Cola 2019 participating secondary school students. As part of the campaign, they will educate the students on the importance of a cleaner environment by taking care of plastics disposal.
One school, in every region (former provinces) pitches are set to be revamped. The winner will be determined by the school that achieves the highest number of waste collected over the tournament period. The Copa Coca-Cola 2019 tournament in Kenya will run from May to July 2019.
The programme is part of the company’s initiative to address the plastic waste pollution. Kenya, amongst fourteen other Southern, East and Central Africa countries, have been earmarked to kick start the project, set up to stimulate plastic recycling industries and create awareness of plastic waste pollution.
A total of 5,400 schools will be participating in this years’ tournament representing an 8% increase from last year’s games.
The new initiative will involve 2,000 out of the 5,400 participating schools in COPA Coca-Cola 2019 tournament ensuring that the teens are educated on the importance of recycling for a litter-free environment. The schools were selected based on the reach of the current recyclers and collectors. The communities surrounding the schools will also be involved in order to ensure all Kenyans participate in taking good care of the environment.
The Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) will still continue to manage the Copa Coca-Cola tournament. The company last year renewed the Ksh. 21.5 Million sponsorship which covers 2018 to 2020. The funds will go towards full kitting of schools in the Sub-zonal, Zonal, Sub-County, County, Regional and National championships, purchase of trophies and medals for all games, as well as run the administration of the tournament.
The Under-16 boys and girls will compete in this year’s tournament for the chance to be crowned the Kenyan champions and a direct ticket for the COPA Coca-Cola Africa Cup.
The exploits of the St. Antony’s High School soccer team during the 2018 championship led Lucas Maina, Wisdom Nava, Jacob Onyango, David Leon, Salim Badi and Issa Emuria being named in the Kenya U-20 provisional Squad that were to participate in the CECAFA Under-20 Championship in Uganda that was later called off.