Copper Queens and Green Buffaloes defender Esther Siamfuko has called for Investment in Women’s Football which has developed tremendously.
Siamfuko was speaking as the guest of honor on new year’s day at the first ever Kumu Cooperative Women Football Tournament in Chiawa Chiefdom in the Lower Zambezi National Park.
“I would love to encourage you girls to continue working hard, train everyday and work towards achieving your goal. I started from a platform like this and am now a National team player. I Am here to encourage you and give you hope, it does not matter where you come from,” she said.
“I Am here as an example, I managed to build my parents a house through football, you can do the same.”
Siamfuko who is a graduate from the Under-17 ranks was the youngest player at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and she was also part of the Copper Queens squad that won Bronze at the 2022 Women Africa Cup Of Nations in Morocco and the squad that won the 2022 COSAFA Championship.
The Choma Warriors product who is now on loan at Green Buffaloes was recently on the books of Queens Sports Academy based in Kabwe.
The KUMU tournament saw favorites and unbeaten Black Rhinos defeating Chimwaye Zebras 1-nil in the final played at Chimwaye Ground while Chakanaka edged Makanya with the same scoreline in the third and fourth play off match played earlier at the same venue.
KUMU which stands for Kushanda Mukuchengetedza Mhuka is a local Cooperative Society Organization whose name is derived from the local language Goba, which is widely spoken in Chiawa meaning working in Conserving Wildlife.
The vision of the cooperative which is chaired by the hardworking Kennedy Prince Mayenga is to empower Chiawa residents mostly youths and women with self-sustainability progress in order to reduce cases of early marriages /early pregnancies, GBV, Poaching and Charcoal Burning business survival or marrying off young girls.
