The ten interesting events in my community are church construction, launching of radio stations, inter families football competitions, construction, and launching of health institutions, and ceremonies such as funerals and marriage. The other two important events are church baptism activities and wrestling matches among male children between 10 to 17 years. Among the six subjects, I am not familiar with inter families football competitions, but I find it to be the most exciting event.
Inter families’ competition is the most interesting event in my community. Seven families combined to form a team of seven players. This competition is normally organized by the community leaders with the goal of promoting talents and also creating a better future for the young people. The competition only involves youths from the age of 18 to 30 years. One of the leaders elaborated that this program is purely for the youths who are seeking self-discovery. These competitions are held during the school holidays between December and January.
Regarding this interesting and important event, I had already known a few things. I know that this competition program is sponsored by The Association for Talent Development. Again, this program creates employment for young people; three of my cousins are currently working with the American Federation of Women. Conversely, one thing I may want to know is how the pandemic affected event’s plans and challenges they have faced during the pandemic.
Talent identification and employment creation make this event interesting since it helps fight joblessness among the youths. In an interview with Mr. Bowers, the chairman of the great community event, Mr. Bowers explained that the COVID-19 pandemic policies implementation by the state interrupted the event plans. These COVID-19 pandemic policies included lockdown and curfews and social distancing. Lockdown prevented the events, financiers, and sponsors from attending football training, while curfew reduced football training hours. On the other hand, social distance did not allow the full football teams to practice, thus reducing the effectiveness of those teams. Apart from financial challenges, Mr. Bowers also mentioned that they lack spacious fields to accommodate all players concerning the social distancing COVID-19 policy by the state.
According to my own research, I found out that COVID-19 indeed disrupted the event activities and plans. On watching the current videos played by Mr. Bowers in his office, it was evident that instead of 14 players, the field could only accommodate eight players. In comparing the previous and current football training sessions, there was a difference in audience volume. And this had a negative impact on supporting talent and employment creation since the audience included the event sponsors who could not attend the event to identify the talented individuals (Dönmez et al. 6). The recorded football match in 2019 backward was much better than of 2020 and 2021. During these two years, the players did not have enough space and time to train as a full team, thus leading to poor performance. The poor performance due to insufficient training has also led to the sponsor’s reluctance towards supporting the event.
Based on my analysis, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the inter families football competition, the most important and interesting event in my community. This event has been interesting since it showcases amazing football talent among the youth and is important because it creates employment for the youths. From my observation of the previous and currently recorded videos, COVID-19 policies by the state have killed the event. Social distance has impeded the entire team from training together; the lockdown has prevented the sponsors from flying to physically watch and identify talents, while curfew has limited the training hours (Dönmez et al. 2). Mr. Bowers’s figurative language truly revealed how painful the pandemic cost the event. From my angle of view, Mr. Bowers should approach the national government to grant them a permit to conduct the inter families’ competitions regardless of the pandemic policies placed by the state. He should do this because this event has created jobs for the youths and earned revenue for the government.