Children from Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu joined in the fun during the series of gatherings, held over several days to coincide with Universal Children’s Day.
The day is a United Nations initiative held on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, promotes and coordinates this special day, which also works towards improving children’s welfare.
As Just Play is a programme that likewise aims to improve the lives of young children – by using football as a tool to promote physical activity while encouraging education, community involvement, gender equity and healthy living – it ties in perfectly with the ideals of Universal Children’s Day.
OFC’s celebrations took the form of a “Just Play Day” and the countries involved staged a range of activities and events.
For example, the Tonga Football Association (TFA) celebrated in style by bringing together 450 children at the nation’s home of football in ‘Atele, where the day kicked off with a parade led by the Tonga Defence Services military band. Numerous community groups joined the parade to display their messages on colourful banners for the public and special guests, which included Australian High Commissioner to Tonga representative Eliza Woolcock, Punjas Tonga Ltd manager Abdul Shamim and TFA executive member ‘Alone Veatufunga.
The day went on to feature a wide range of activities, including traditional dances, ukulele bands, caroling and small-sided football games. But the main attraction was a talent show, during which 10-year-old Sione Mone, a left-handed violinist from Kolomotu’a, thrilled the audience with his accomplished skills.
TFA social responsibility officer Pau Likiliki says the day was a big success and was delighted to see so many children enjoying themselves with their families as he feels that is what Just Play is all about.
Meanwhile in Solomon Islands, the Just Play day in Honiara opened with speeches from the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) President Martin Alufurai, the Third Secretary to the Australian High Commission, William Ewing, and Benedict Esibaea, the Director of Primary Education in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.
Esibaea offered the national government’s word of appreciation to the organisations responsible for supporting the program.
“My minister appreciates the impact that Just Play has made in Solomon Islands not only in Honiara but also in the provinces. We extend our gratitude to the Australian government and to OFC for supporting this program. I also wish to thank SIFF for the leadership and the hard work shown in developing this program,” Esibaea said.
A total of 23 teams then took part in the competitions and festivities under the watchful eye of SIFF special projects manager Phillip Ohoto’ona, who organised the event in collaboration with other departments in SIFF.
Similar activities took place across the other Pacific Island nations and proved just as popular with large numbers of children turning out. The event took on such significance in Vanuatu that traffic in Port Vila had to be stopped for 15 minutes as over 200 children marched through the capital city.
Developed by the OFC social responsibility and technical departments, Just Play was launched in Tonga in October 2009 and has since been introduced in Vanuatu, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Auckland, New Zealand.
OFC will continue to work closely with UEFA and the Government of Australia – through its agencies the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) – to roll out the Just Play programme across the Pacific. The Australian Government has shown its support to the project by contributing AU$4million.
The confederation has also been working in New Zealand with Special Olympics (NZ) on a Just Play programme for people with mental disabilities and launched the new initiative in Samoa last month.

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