Kids Show of Skills at Sadili 8-Series Challenge 6

Sadili Oval on Saturday 2^nd September 2017 hosted the Sadili 8-Series Challenge 6, a free-entry event that has become a cherished monthly staple for many kids under age 12 in Kibera, as well as Kijiji- a small informal settlement in Lang’ata. The 40 kids were excited to play at Sadili and the tournament went on as planned.

On arrival at Sadili, the kids were first divided according to their ages and the matches swiftly followed. The kids, many of them new tennis learners, kept everyone entertained as they relentlessly tried their best to show their skills in the game.

The tournament organizers, Sadili staff, were satisfied with the games played even though many children didn’t show up for the event. To them, it was fulfilling that the children that participated had a platform to show their talents as they enjoyed themselves.

The Sadili 8- Series Junior Tennis Challenge is a tournament for U6, U8, U10 & U12 kids (all levels), with Tennis Africa Cup ranking. It is great for kids who want to test their games, get out on the court and make new friends along the way. It was initiated by Tennis professional, Dr. Liz Odera.

Run under a Sadili/International Inspiration partnership, this tournament was sponsored by Wilson Sporting Goods, Sadili Oval and Comic Relief among others.

RESULTS OF THE TOURNAMENT-08/10/2016

U-6 Boys

Red Team

Aaron Manyonka vs Alfred Otieno 3/7

Stanley Muli vs Aaron Manyonka 1/7
Aaron Manyonka vs Joseph Odhiambo 7/5

Stanley Muli vs Joseph Odhiambo 7/5
Alfred Otieno vs Joseph Odhiambo 7/5

Stanley Muli vs Alfred Otieno 7/2
Joseph Odhiambo vs Moses Ekisa 4/7

Stanley Muli vs Moses Ekisa 7/4

Moses Ekisa vs Aaron Manyonka 2/7
Alfred Otieno vs Moses Ekisa 5/7

Winner: Aaron Manyonka
Runner up: Stanley Muli

U-6 Girls

Red Team

Eunice Ekiru Vs Shantel Adatia 7/4

Winner: Eunice Ekiru
Runner up: Shantel Adatia

U-8 Boys

Red Team

Richard Isaiah vs Tofique Ibrahim 5/7
Richard Isaiah vs Jesse Owino 6/7
Richard Isaiah vs Mike Owino 4/7
Tofique Ibrahim vs Jesse Owino 7/3
Tofique Ibrahim vs Mike Owino 5/7

Jesse Owino vs Mike Owino 7/6

Winner: Mike Owino
Runner up: Tofique Ibrahim

U-8 Girls

Red Team

Everline Akinyi vs Abigail Asiro 5/7
Irene Natalia vs Everline Akinyi 7/5

Everline Akinyi vs Yvonne Nadia 7/4

Irene Natalia vs Abigail Asiro 7/3

Irene Natalia vs Yvonne Nadia 7/4

Yvonne Nadia vs Abigail Asiro 7/6

Winner: Irene Natalia
Runner up: Everline Akinyi

U-10 Boys

Red Team

Victor Omondi vs Samuel Oduor 4/7
Victor Omondi  vs Franklin Matata 7/6
Victor Omondi  vs Bravin Oduor 7/2
Franklin Matata vs Bravin Oduor 7/6
Franklin Matata vs Samuel Oduor 4/7

Samuel Oduor vs Bravin Oduor 7/4

Winner: Samuel Oduor
Runner up: Victor Matata

U-10 Girls

Red Team

Angela Alwanga vs Rose Daniella 7/3

Winner: Angela Alwanga
Runner up: Rose Daniella

U-12 Boys

Red Team

Joshua Abiutu vs Cecil Omondi 2/0
Cecil Omondi vs Brian Kangethe 2/0
Brian Kangethe vs Joshua Abiutu 1/2
Joshua Abiutu  vs Abdi Rashid 2/0

Brian Kangethe vs Abdi Rashid 0/2

Cecil Omondi vs Abdi Rashid 2/1

Winner: Joshua Abiutu

Runner-Up: Cecil Omondi

Green Team

Collins Mwirigi vs Ali Matano 2/0

Collins Mwirigi vs Simon Kabiru 2/0
Collins Mwirigi vs Kennedy Kanywira 2/0
Kennedy Kanywira vs Ali Matano 1/2

Simon Kabiru vs Ali Matano 1/2

Winner: Collins Mwirigi
Runner up: Ali Matano

Blue Team

Tom Agumba vs John Omondi 2/1

Winner: Tom Agumba
Runner up: John Omondi

U-12 Girls

Red Team

Scovia Nafula vs Sarah Nyanchama 2/0
Scovia Nafula vs Gloria Kakai 2/0

Scovia Nafula vs Anne Katile 2/0

Gloria Kakai vs Anne Katile1/2

Anne Katile vs Sarah Nyanchama 2/0

Gloria Kakai vs Sarah Nyanchama 1/2

Winner: Scovia Nafula
Runner up: Scovia Nafula

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all of our sponsors!

The Court of Dreams Uses Sports to Make a Positive Impact on the Lives of Children: St. Peter’s Story

Situated on the edge of Kibera slums in Nairobi, St. Peter’s Primary and Nursery School is one of the schools participating in Sadili Oval Sports Academy’s Court of Dreams programme. The school was founded in 2011 by Mr. Titus Ndonga who is now the director and Ms. Clare Amachari, who is the head teacher.

Like most schools in Kibera, pupils at St. Peter’s learn under very poor conditions. With a population of 60 pupils from nursery to Std. 4, the school has only 3 teachers (including the head teacher). All the 60 pupils learn in the same room, barely partitioned using old rags. Outside the building they call school is a foul smelling stream of stagnant water that is full of litter.

Despite these circumstances, the school’s head teacher has chosen to focus on the positive side: the fact that things have been getting better ever since she had the school enrolled on the Court of Dreams programme.

 “I can’t help but notice how much change there has been in these pupils since our school joined the programme. I’m very glad that staff from Sadili often teach them what we don’t have time to teach. We focus so much on teaching them Math and English and Swahili while we forget basics like hand washing, nail-cutting and showering,” says Ms. Amachari. “It is not uncommon for me to meet a parent outside there who is curious to know who has been teaching their child how to wash their hands, because they too have noticed a change. Not too long ago I met one whose son always insists on using soap, something she found very unusual of him!”

Ms. Clare Amachari, Head teacher

A part from these important life skills, Ms. Amachari is happy that the children can now go out to play, at least once a week, thanks to Sadili’s playground (Kibera Tennis Court) set aside for kids in the programme. “We are also very grateful that these kids now have a field to play. Our school is in an extremely squeezed environment and we feel very privileged to have a place for them to play. They always get very excited when it’s time to come to the tennis court,” says the head teacher, “We hope the programme is here to stay.”

A group of pupils in class

Mr. Ndonga and Ms. Amachari founded the school with the aim of helping parents to bear the burden of school fees. St. Peter’s Primary School pupils come from underprivileged family backgrounds, mainly with single parents. The pay very little school fees, just enough to keep the school running. The younger ones in nursery school pay KES 300 (USD 3) per month while those in primary school pay KES 400 (USD 4) per month. Total orphans learn for free.

Learning to play tennis at the Kibera Tennis Court

St. Peter’s is just one of the many schools in Kibera with problems ranging from inadequate teachers to poor learning environments. The Court of Dreams may not solve all these problems, but we are glad that the programme is slowly making a difference in the lives of the children involved, and that the teachers and their parents have noticed this difference. Knowing that these children’s lives are getting better every day gives us a sense of purpose, and is motivation enough to keep us going.

The Court of Dreams is an Inclusive Project: Emmy’s Story

Meet Emmy Akinyi, an eight year old std. one pupil who is part of Sadili’s Court of Dreams project. She goes to Mary Rice Education Centre and lives with her father Fredrick and brother Eddy in Nairobi’s Kibera slums. Her mother lives in the village with the rest of her siblings.

Emmy was born a normal child. However, at the age of 3, she developed complications after a Polio vaccine went wrong. She got very sick after the vaccine and was admitted to hospital for several weeks. Consequently, her left arm and leg were temporarily paralysed. Thankfully she has been getting better with the passing of time. 

Her entire left side of the body still gets painful sometimes, making her unable to fully use her left arm and leg. Despite this, Emmy has not let her life be defined by her physical challenges. She considers herself a normal child and participates actively in sports in school. She is extremely jovial, and equally playful.

Emmy(right) with her brother Eddy

She goes to Sadili’s Kibera Tennis Court every day after school and every weekend to play tennis and other games. Even though she struggles with the racquet more than the rest of the children, she remains steadfast. She even participated in the Sadili 8 series tournament on 4^th June 2016!

Emmy is also a bright pupil. Her father says she is the brightest in the family. In fact, last term she took second position in her class of 22 pupils. 

“When I grow up I would like to be a teacher. My favourite subject is Mathematics, and that is what I would like to teach in future.” She says.

Her father hopes that she achieves her dreams. “I will continue to pay her school fees until she gets to the university. I want my daughter to be a successful person.’’ He says.

Asked about what he thinks of the Court of Dreams project and his daughter's participation, he expresses how pleased he is. "I couldn't be more grateful to Sadili for coming up with this project. Ever since Emmy started playing at the tennis court, I have seen a lot of improvement in her. She is more fit and her self esteem has greatly improved. I'm even happier that they now have professionals to teach them life skills as they play. Even more important is that she is able to bathe and care for her hygiene herself"

Emmy, Eddy and their dad at their home in Kibera

His advice to parents with physically challenged children is ''Don’t lock them up in the house because they have physical limitations. The health benefits of regular physical activity are the same for people with and without disabilities. Let them go out and play.’’

First Smashers Challenge Takes Off To A Great Start

The first Smashers Challenge Tournament of 2016 took place at its traditional home, Sadili Oval in Langata, Nairobi, with 18 juniors braving the cold and wet conditions to have what was a good beginning of the year’s tennis of the Tennis Africa Cup. Little Emmi Imani proved her talent by breaking through to the semi-finals in the mixed 12's, before losing to top ranked boy, Eddy Ochieng. Evans Otieno dominated the U16, beating all opposition to step onto the winners spot on the podium. Newcomer Alfred Bokea took second place after Ibrahim Mohammed failed to play his match against Alfonse Oduor, thereby losing critical points.

In the 12s: Eddy Ochieng, Emi Imani, Michel Otieno and Andrew Bokea emerged from the group stages to compete in the semi-finals, with Andrew Bokea routing Michael Otieno 4/0/4/0, before dominating over Ochieng 5/3, 4/2 to bag the winner’s points.

The Under 14s was a round robin with close run between Jeremy Kimani and Chevita Okenye, which Okenye eventually won in points.

The Smashers Challenge is a Level B tournament for top juniors in the Tennis Africa Cup (http://www.tennisafrica.net/) ranking and recognized by the Nairobi County Tennis Association. The Smashers Challenge Series, started by Tennis professional, Dr. Liz Odera over 17 years ago to build talent, has helped hone the skills of many juniors, who now live and play in about 14 countries around the world. This year, the tournament series also forms part of the qualification events towards the National Masters, which will take place during the Smashers Challenge up on the 6^th – 7^th August 2016, at the Karen Country Club. Winners who from the Masters will qualify for the World Finals of The CHAMPIONS BOWL (http://www.champ-bowl.com), a worldwide tournament circuit, to be held in Turkey later this year. 

RESULTS

U12
POOL A					SEMIS	FINALS
	1	2	3	4
EMI IMANI		1/4, 1/4	4/2, 5/3	4/2, 1/4, 7/3	E. OCHIENG
ANDREW BOKEA	4/1, 4/1		4/2, 5/3	4/1, 4/0		E. OCHIENG
VICTOR OTIENO	2/4, 3/5	2/4, 3/5		2/4, 1/4		4/1, 4,0
HENRY OTIENO	2/4, 4/1, 3/7	1/4, 0/4	4/2, 4/1		E. IMANI
							A. BOKEA
POOL B					M. OTIENO		5/3, 4/2
	1	2	3	4
AUSTINE KATIECH		4/1, 4/2	0/4, 0/4	4/0, 4/0		A. BOKEA
EDDY OCHIENG	1/4, 2/4		W/O	4/0, 4/0	A. BOKEA	4/0, 4/0
MICHEAL OTIENO	4/0, 4/0	W/O		4/0, 4/0
PETER KILONZI	0/4, 0/4	0/4, 0/4	0/4, 0/4

U14						POSITION
	1	2	3	4	5
JOSEPH BOKEA		1/4, 3/5	1/4, 2/4	**	2/4, 3/5	4
EVANS AMINGA	4/1, 5/3		4/0, 2/4, 5/7	**	4/1, 4/0	3
CHEVITA OKENYE	4/1, 4/2	0/4, 4/2, 7/5		**	1/4, 4/1, 7/4	1
JEREMY KIMANI	**	**	**		**	**
EDWARD ODONGO	4/2, 5/3	4/1, 4/0	4/1, 1/4, 4/7	**		2

U16
	1	2	3	4	5	Rank
ALFRED BOKEA		4/1, 4/1	4/2, 4/2	3/5, 2/4	1/4, 3/5	2
ALFONSE ODUOR	1/4, 1/4		0/4,2/4	NOT PLAYED	1/4, 2/4	5
GEORGE KEYA	2/4, 2/4	4/0, 4/2		1/4, 2/4	0/4, 0/4	4
IBRAHIM MOHAMMED	5/3, 4/2	NOT PLAYED	4/1, 4/2		2/4, 3/5	3
EVANS OTIENO	4/1, 5/3	4/1, 4/2	4/0, 4/0	4/2, 5/3		1