Friday, May 27, 2016

Sadili Oval: Shaping the lives of children of Kibera through sports and life skills

"Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father", so said Roger von Oech, a contemporary American creativity guru. I couldn't agree more. Research shows that community  sport  programs  provide  children  marginalized  by  poverty, disability, family dissolution, ethno-cultural background and conflict with  training and team experiences to help develop effective social and communication skills, build positive relationships, make friends, and find social support.

This is exactly what the Kibera Tennis Court  offers, and it was no different on Saturday, 14th May 2016. The children played all sorts of games including basketball, tennis and hula hoop. They were guided by coaches from Sadili Oval Sports Academy, Trizah Mboya and Asha Adongo accompanied by one of Kenya's best basketball players, Zack Okong'o.

Zack Okong'o teaching the children basketball
Zack Okong'o teaching the children basketball
Playing the hula hoop: one of the children in action
Playing the hula hoop: one of the children in action
Seeing the children so happy and their coaches so relational and caring was extremely heart warming. The sense of community and level of resiliency displayed by these children once again reminded me why Sadili Oval believes in the power of sports.

Coach Trizah Mboya playing tennis with the children
Coach Trizah Mboya playing tennis with the children
The children take a group photo after games
The children take a group photo after games
I believe in the power of sports too. Do you?

Let them play!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.