WHEN he left his rural Bikita home for Harare at the turn of the century it was Young Achievement Sports for Development (YASD) founder Petros Chatiza's desire to find a job and change his life.
Without relatives in the capital city and a place to stay, Chatiza was taken in by a family that lived in an informal settlement in Hatcliffe Extension bereft of some basic amenities such as schools, roads, safe drinking water, proper housing and electricity, among others.
And the situation worsened when the government embarked on Operation Murambatsvina, which sought to clear all slum areas across the country and the result cost an estimated 700 000 Zimbabweans their homes and livelihood.
The hope for a better life vanished for Chatiza as he and his adopted family had to sleep in the open for a long time.
But it was sport, particularly football, that provided a way out of the doom and gloom, leading to the formation of YASD, sports organisation that changed many lives in the community since then.
"During the period when we were homeless a lot of the young people in the community had nothing to do, especially without access to school so we decided to help other kids to have classes to read and write and play football just to pass our time," Chatiza said.
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"During that time we got emergency kits from Unicef because they had come and seen our reading classes. The emergency kits consisted of small writing boards, footballs and reading books so that we could reach out to more children. I think that's how we developed the concept for Young Achievement Sports for Development.
"Honestly at no point did I think that life would turn out this way because when you leave the rural areas coming to Harare the idea is to get a job, upgrade myself, get an education and move up the corporate ladder.
"Circumstances brought me here because when I came to Harare I had no relatives, no place to stay, the only option was to go live in an informal settlement such as Hatcliffe. But when I look back at the impact that I have made in the community I just want to be able to do more."
Together with two other friends Tawanda Karasa who is now based in Australia and Samuel Mandava they became the founders of YASD, which was formally registered in 2007 and has since created huge local and global networks.
"When it became formally structured it never left the idea of sport, which was very critical in the formation. The reading classes developed into a programme we call educational support that has become a fully fledged scholarship support programme that pays school fees for disadvantaged kids. I think the first beneficiaries of the programme are in university now
"Our football programme, which we now call sports training programme has to grow to become part of international sporting events where we are part of the Homeless World Cup where we send a team from Zimbabwe to participate every year.
"We have not stuck to education and sport only, but we have made sure that we address issues affecting the young people in Hatcliffe. Issues to do with unemployment, drug abuse and life skills so we have developed a programme we call youth support services.
"Recently we had a sewing programme that we did run for women in the community. This programme, which was supported by the French embassy trained 20 young women in sewing," Chatiza said.
When they sent a team to the 2006 Homeless World Cup they were not registered as an organisation.
The Homeless World Cup has become YASD's flagship event where they send a team of players from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them acquire passports, have exposure interacting with others with similar circumstances from different countries during a week-long football tournament.
YASD has received support from organisations such as Unicef, Norwegian People's Aid, Football for Good, Common Goal which is an organisation that do sport for good to get support from prominent footballers such Juan Mata, Women Win (Netherlands-based organisation) Goal project Zimbabwe Sports Educational Fund( Australia), Grassroots Cricket(Australia), Homeless World Cup, Fifa and the French embassy, to mention but a few.
Chatiza reflects on the journey with YASD.
"I think the impact we have made is there for all to see and what inspires us are testimonies of people we have impacted as an organisation. We have sent hundreds of children to school, we have equipped hundreds more with life skills, he said.
"When we started the idea was to impact 100 young people per year and then later we targeted 500 and right now it's 1 500. I am humbled that a project I started has set a footprint in this country in terms of helping young people from disadvantaged communities have a chance at life.”
Of course Chatiza now owns a home and he has also since attained a degree in marketing management and plans to undertake a masters’ degree are in the pipeline.
He is also a Mandela Washington Fellow and went to Delaware University (United States of America) in 2017 for civic engagement training.