SAFARI TENNIS EXPERIENCE at Sadili Oval Sports Academy (August 2024)

SAFARI TENNIS EXPERIENCE

Join us as we dive into the world of tennis with an event that promises to be more than just a game with world female coaches in the persons of JUDY MURRAY (SCOTLAND), LIZ ODERA(KENYA), TINA SAMARA(USA), and EMMA DOYLE (AUSTRALIA)

This event will showcase the talent of both seasoned professionals and rising stars. Expect to witness a display of strategy and the indomitable spirit that defines tennis. You can register here

 

The Mission

Our mission is to bring together tennis enthusiasts from all walks of life to share in the joy of the sport. We aim to create an inclusive environment where passion for Tennis ignites, skills are honed, and lifelong memories are made.

 

Activities

Skill Workshops: Improve your game with tips from the talented coaches

Meet and Greets: Interact with our able coaches

Exhibition Matches: Watch top coaches compete in friendly matches.

Junior Tournaments: Encourage the next generation of tennis stars.

 

The Experience

This event will strengthen your coaching experience through your interaction with our able coaches: EMMA DOYLE (AUSTRALI), TINNA SAMARA (USA),  LIZ ODERA (KENYA), and JUDY  MURRAY (SCOTLAND). So, Enjoy the fans of our coaches and the festive atmosphere that only a tennis event can offer.

Furthermore, you could expect these helpful outcomes from the events which include:

Enhanced Skills: Participants will leave with improved coaching techniques.

New Connections: Forge friendships within the tennis community. Connections remain the strongest currency in this century.

Inspiration: Be motivated by the coaches to take your game to the next level.

 

How to Get Involved.

Interested in being a part of this exciting event? Here’s how:

Register Online through this link 

OR

 Scan the QR on the poster to download the application form.

Written By Quinter Akoth

SADILI OVAL AFTER THE STORM

After weeks of relentless rain and recovery efforts, the Sadili Oval Sports Club is thrilled to announce the resumption of all tennis activities. The club's reopening is a testament to the enduring spirits of its members and the community.

 The road to recovery was paved with challenges. The club once waterlogged courts have been restored, thanks to the tireless work of the staff. 

“Seeing our courts ready for play again is incredibly rewarding,” shared club coach Mary.

 In anticipation of the reopening, the club has implemented several upgrades. Enhanced drainage systems, new court surfaces, and refurbished amenities await the members. 

“We are not just coming back, we are coming back stronger," said Dr.Elizabeth the G.M.

Most of our members have attested to the reopening of the club, and some of them have come to see if we are really opening.  

The Sadili Oval Sports Club's resumption of activities is more than a return to normalcy, it is a leap forward. With facilities and a united community, the club is set to serve up its best season yet. 

Written by  Akoth Quinter

Successful Completion of the Court Of Dreams project

Since the inception of the Court Of Dreams project in the year 2016 a lot has been covered especially in the areas of WASH, Health and Education in the different schools that Court Of Dreams was introduced to, with sports juicing up all the life skills sessions that were carried out.

The project targeted young children between the age of 4 and 10 years that is children from Nursery to class 3 who are mostly neglected when it comes to going to school, issues related to WASH and are prone to diseases which are caused due to the nature of games and environment that they play in. It has been an amazing time working with the little ones getting to learn from them as they also learn from us during the life skills and sports sessions which they actively engaged in.

The support has been great from the different schools that we have worked with, which most of them are from Kibera and a few from Lang'ata. The directors, teachers, parents and pupils played an active role in the successful carrying out of the Court Of Dreams project to its completion. From the different sessions carried out at schools to training's that parents and teachers were coming in to participate at Sadili Oval Sports Academy ,to ensure that the lessons taught do not become extinct.

As they say everything that has a beginning has an end, it has been awesome working with everyone who supported the Court Of Dreams. Our greatest appreciation goes to the Comic relief and United Purpose for funding our project from the start to the end ,Dr Elizabeth Odera who ensured that the project ran smoothly, all our partners for the continuous support ,all well wishers and friends of Sadili for their generous donations and support, the schools that we have worked with that is all the teachers and pupils without them the implementation of the project wouldn’t have been successful and the Sadili Oval Staff members for working relentlessly to ensure that the Court Of Dreams project objectives are achieved

My Love for Tennis

Nicholas with Coach Adongo

“My journey in tennis started when I first saw Coach Asha Adongo at our school picking new members to join her squad group. She used come in the evening pick us at school and head to the Kibera Tennis Court where we would do our tennis practice sessions. At first I was afraid as I didn’t know how to play tennis leave alone holding a racket but after realizing that most members didn’t know either gave me some sort of comfort though I vowed to learn as much as I can and become one of the best players. I always look forward to evenings, Saturdays and Holiday camps so that I could play tennis”, said Nicholas.

Nicholas with other squad members during training.

Nicholas Omondi is a 12 year old class 5 boy at Nazarene Primary school in Kibera he started playing tennis when he was in class 3 after the introduction of the Court of dreams program in their school and since then he has become a constant never missing tennis practice. “Nicholas is one of the most determined players I have, great at smashing and back hand. He is also disciplined and makes the team lively and active with his comical aspect. He also has a determined spirit losing a game to him is not an option and when he does he seriously cries and will make sure the next time he wins. Through Nicholas there are several other good players who have joined the team”, said coach Adongo

In a short interview with Nicholas he was able to inform us that tennis has so far become his favorite sport, his parent’s support him as his class work has improved so has his manners. Even though he wants to become a pilot when he grows up, he will still play tennis his favorite sport.

  

Impact Realization

Did you know the most expensive gift one can offer to anyone is time? The wise people said “time is money”. I am not well versed with how one can convert time to money if you are not employed or trading, but if someone lends you their time, serving you and expecting nothing in return, respect the person since they have offered you a gift that can’t be quantified. Sadili Oval Sports Academy was incorporated with one vision, “To empower children and youth to improve their wealth, reduce poverty and improve learning for a better future.” Working round the clock to see improvement in the less privileged society. With this in mind, a number of programs and projects have been launched to see to it that this has been achieved and slowly but surely its happening. The Sadili staffs who are working under Court of Dreams Project have really created a lot of impact among the children in the program as well as the community at large. The self motivation towards keeping the environment clean, the toilets and also their self hygiene is something so remarkable and can confirm that there is  impact of the lessons taught under Court of Dreams."I participated during the Community Clean up which took place on the 11^th March 2019, I was tasked with assisting the participants in hand washing and after closely observing how the children were doing it, and I realized most of them were able to follow all the steps in hand washing which was so impressive. The kind of satisfaction on realizing the impact the lessons by the social educator was enough to mean the time they always give in teaching life skills does not go to waste.

I am optimistic that this impact will be sustained for a long time and with support from every stakeholder i.e Sadili Oval Sports Academy Board members, Staff Members, donors and the target community at large, a complete transformation will be realized"

Discovering the entry point for year 3 of the project

Data for baseline surveys are always the measure to clearly know where to start and the needs to address in reference to the set objectives and outcomes of project implementation.

For the three months of the 2nd quarter for the court of dreams project, baselines studies has been on going with implementers zealous to know the entry point for the newly selected sites for year 3, that includes, Stara Rescue center a school in Darajani, St Vincent De Paul in Olympic and Undugu Basic Education Unit located in Silanga, all located in Kibera slum.

All the tools were put to task including but not limited to; Children’s interviews that investigates the knowledge on toilet use, Standardized tests gauge the level of literacy and numeracy of children, Behavior dos and don’ts that tries to find out that understanding of safe WASH practices, Parents surveys, Concentration and memory games, Quick test games, WASH 2 that handles hand washing practices and monthly school attendance records for children.

Picking on one of the tools’ data from baseline that seem holistic in reference to all the designed M&E tools is Behaviors dos and don’ts. This tool was put to task with twelve pictures with behaviors around WASH.Children are shown the pictures one at a time and probed to tell whether it has a Good, Bad or an in-between option for those who were undecided on the first two options.

A good job done by implementers brought about a view of the state at baseline which is amazing and really defines why intervention is important in the selected sites for year 3.Data analysis showed results such as on the third picture with a child eating food covered with flies, out of 118 participants 29 of them said it is a good behavior, 8 participants were undecided whether it’s good or bad, while 81 said it is a bad WASH practices. This informs the wide spread ways of poor food hygiene practices in the community. Food vendors are always less concern of swam of flies on fish, fruits, and vegetables on a display table. Children learn from observations hence to them food covered with flies is not a bad behavior as their surrounding nurtures them.

Children also informed on the burying feaces as a Safe WASH practice to being a bad behaviors as majority of the participants in the sample saying it’s a bad behavior. Reading through their reasoning and comments, when feaces are buried this becomes interference to farming or people can still come into contact with the buried feaces.

The baseline studies therefore has informed implementers and the team at Sadili at large on the key areas and approaches to make  sustainable impact through reaching out to children, teachers and parents using various learning manuals as designed by the social educator. From the monitoring and evaluation desk a project is made of a commendable change at the end of the project in September 2019.

                

Significance of a name.

Names are powerful. Children learn to identify with their names at a very early age. They love to be called names that they perceive to be trendy, good, and stylish. We have had to refer to the same child with at least three different names as they grow in the program.  To all children it is important that you address them in the correct way in front of their peers. We have used names in our interaction with children to achieve different goals. Names have been a means and an end.

One of the drives to using names is to ensure we have a fun filled session as we learn tennis. So in our introduction session with one of the schools, our life skill topic was about healthy eating. Every child mentioned the food they like and we adopted these as their names. This made marking the register so much fun. We had ‘Omena’, ‘Madondo’, ‘Chapo’, ‘Chips’, ‘mafuta ya chips’ (to differentiate from chips), ‘githeri’, ‘mchele’, ‘maharage’e.t.c .They loved it and it made it  easy for us to know who is absent, and make corrections as we learn the basic steps. All the coach had to say is ``saidia githeri hapo, vile ameshika racquet atamwaga githeri yote’’ the kids would laugh and help. We never had a dull session and we still use our names.

Children learn from doing, they at times assume roles and sometime are given roles to play. This is how we came to give some names to our children. When we end our sessions at the community court we often have some children who just do not want to leave the court and go home. Otieno would go round telling them that the coach has said it is time to go home and make sure they are on their way. He is not old as you may assume he is in nursery school about 6 years. Every time we went to the court he is among the first children to come in and reports of what happened at the court in our absence. This is how he got his name ‘Soja wa coach’.

Head boy on the other hand loved collecting all the rackets and balls when session is over and ensuring they are well placed in the store. He will ensure everyone has returned their racket and all balls are in the basket. Our head boy assumes this role even without being told.

‘Ochi makamasi’ got his name because he always has a dirty nose. He is a big boy old enough to clean his nose but he does not. We have done live skills sessions on washing my face and cleaning my nose but this did not bring about change with Ochi. So we adopted this name for him so that he realizes and makes an effort to do something. He did not like the name and this made him check his nose every time he is coming to the court. This has improved and we do not use the name as often anymore. His nose is clean nowadays.

‘Baba yao’ got this name because he marks the register for the Squad and has to know all who are absent. ‘Mama yao’ serves porridge to the team so she ensures all have eaten. ‘Firstborn’ does cleaning of the cups. The names help the children remember their roles and responsibilities. As coaches we also get names in line with our inter action with the children, the oldest being ‘Princi’. Sometimes we are referred to by the name of their favorites coach.

It is important to ensure names are used positively, since there is significance to a name. 

8 SERIES TOURNAMENT GETS BETTER

The day started on a good note with children coming in on time anxious to tackle each other and showcase some of the techniques taught to them by Coach Asha Adongo in their regular Saturday Tennis sessions. After the first tournament held at Sadili Oval sports Academy, the children were able to identify their areas of weakness and ought to become better in the next tournament.
The tournament started at 9.00 am and ended at 12:00 pm with most of the children coming from Kibera. The tournament was held at our court in Kibera for the young ones mostly under the age of 6 as they couldn't come to Lang'ata considering their age and the distance to Sadili and the other was held at Sadili for the older ones mostly and children from Lang'ata.
The children were organized in different a category that is under 6 years, 8 years, 10 years and 12 years. They were then registered and later went to their different pools and the competitions started this being the second competition the children showed remarkable results as most of them had improved from the previous results. The game was intense as each player didn't want to lose the ball you could actually follow with yours eyes to see where the ball falls next

''Their is a lot of improvement from the children who constantly come for practice during Saturday squad sessions this being a new group that was started in January ,am glad as most of the children understand the basics of tennis and are consistent in their training session observing discipline so that they can excel. I would also like to thank Dr Elizabeth Oder our director for providing sports uniforms for our children the uniformity was amazing. My objective is to get my team to play tournaments outside Sadili and also participate in major championships "said coach Asha Adongo during a short interview.

In every game there has to be a winner and in this competition the winners were as follows under 6 boys and girls Moses Ekisa and Shantel Jasmine, Under 8-Shelton Omondi and Joy Atieno, Under 10-James Collo and Irene Natalia Under 12-Patel Ambache and Angela Alwanga. After the children had lunch and later left to their respective homes full of smiles, hope and determination about the next tournament

STARA RESCUE CENTER AND SCHOOL

Stara Rescue Center and school

And finally we settled on our last school which is Stara Rescue Center the school is located in Darajani area Makini ward. In a short Interview with Mr. Fred Onserio who is the school Head teacher we got to learn more about the school, the head teacher informed us that the school was started in 2000 as a Pre-school and later expanded into a Primary school with the first class doing their K.C.P.E exams in 2008.The school has 14 teachers and 2 social workers who ensure that all the children’s needs education wise and psychological wise are met.

The school gives 1^st priority to Total orphans, children from single parents, HIV positive children and abandoned and neglected children to be part of the school. Providing to them quality education from qualified teachers and also meals which some of them are unable to get from their homes. The school also empowers young girls on different areas and the girls are really doing well. The school offers scholarship to children who perform well as they provide their School fees and basic needs when they join high school thus this gives the children the motivation to work hard in school.

Learning block in the school

Education is not the only focus of this school but also Sports, Drama and Music are usually incorporated which the children also enjoy and have excelled in it hence tapping and promoting talent amongst the children and helping them to sustain themselves and survive in Kibera. However the school also faces a few challenges which include water shortage, enough text books and desks for all the children as the numbers keep increasing, children missing school and not getting enough meals for children as they are provided for tea break and lunch.

Despite all this the school still aims at improving Kibera with their mission being to effectively respond to communities needs through caring for the disadvantaged.

Pupils of Stara participating in a session

TEAM SADILI RETURN FROM A SUCCESSFUL EAST AFRICA CIRCUIT

Shebani Kabura

Sadili Oval Sports Academy’s upcoming Juniors Shebani Kabura (Bdi), Josephat Garo (Ken), Olivier Kigotho (Ken) and Sada Nahimana (Bdi), will today return following a three-week stint of continental tournaments, in which they showed stellar performance, at the ITF/CAT Junior Tennis Circuit that began in Bujumbura, Burundi and concluded today in Kigali, Rwanda.

In the First leg of the Boys 14 and Under, Olivier Kigotho beat Nzeyimana Karim (Bdi) 6/0 6/1, before losing to Alosha Chikanda (Zim) 2/6 4/6 in the pre-quarters. He then beat Sullemani Omari (Tan) 6/3 6/1 and Ibrahim Sadiki (Tan) 7/5 7/6 (4) to earn an honorable 11^th place, the best position of any Kenyan in the tournament. Newcomer Josephat Garo (Ken) lost his first round match to experienced Hazikimana Mupenda 3/6 4/6, before rallying to beat Reuben Njuguna Kimani (Ken) to earn 18^th place out of 36.  Shebani Kabura (Bdi), beat Hakizimana Mupendwa (Bdi) 6/4 2/6 6/1, Rajabu Ntamba (Bdi) 3/6 6/4 6/4, and Shabani Kasalo (Bdi) 6/4 6/3 to reach the finals, losing to Erneste Habyambere 3/6 6/3 2/6 in a closely contested match, earning a final 2^nd place out of 32 players.

Sada Nahimana

In the First leg of the Girls 14 and Under, 10 year old Sada Nahimana beat Abigael Tate-Harte (Ken) 6/1 5/7 6/0, Prudence Theuri (Ken) 6/0 6/1, and Aisha Niyonkuru (Bdi) 6/2 6/3 topping group B and qualifying for the play-offs, where she trounced Oliva Tuyisenge (Rwa) 6/0 6/0 and finally losing in the finals to take second place against 14 year old Mariam Mujawimana (Bdi) 7/5 3/6 0/6. In the 2^nd Leg of the Girls 14 and Under Nahimana, once again, dispensed confidently with all opposition before losing in the finals to Mariam, and earning second place. Her final leg in Rwanda, was her biggest test, and an exhausted but determined fight ensued, with Sada beating Oliva Tuyisenge (Rwa) 6/2 6/3, Alida Bella Mugisha (Bdi) 6/4 6/3, and July Nkatha (Ken) 6/1 6/3 in the group stages, she then beat Aisha Niyonkuru (Bdi) 6/0 3/6 6/1 in the semis, then lost, once again in the finals, to Mariam Mujawimana (Bdi) 3/6 3/6 to earn an overall second place in the tournament.

       

Olivier Kigotho

In the 2^nd leg of the Boys 14 and Under, Olivier Kigotho dispensed with Billy Nkingi (Bdi) 61/ 6/2 to prepare for a marathon match against his team mate and second seeded Shebani Kabura, losing closely 6/7 (4) 1/6. He then rallied to beat Kimani (Ken) 6/0 6/4, before losing to Hakizimana Mupenda 4/6 2/6 to take 14^th place out of 32 players. He later improved in confidence on the hot clay courts on Rwanda during the third and final leg, earning tenth place after beating Jonathan Giru Mugisha 6/1 6/2 and Sadick Ibrahim Shabani (Tan) 6/1 3/6 10/6. His team mate, Josephat Garo, also fought hard and long but was unable to dispense with Hakizimana, losing in three close sets 6/4 6/7 (4) 5/7, finally beating Abdoul Nzeyimana (Bdi) 6/0 6/0 to take position 21 out of 32 in the second tournament in Burundi. In Rwanda, Garo improved to 19^th place. Shebani beat Alosha Chikanda (Zim) 6/4 6/3 in the quarters, losing closely to Shebani Kasalo (Bdi) 5/7 6/4 6/7 (2) in a well-fought semi-finals. He then beat Nicodemus Mallya (Tan) 6/3 6/1 to earn third place overall. He struck out in the final tournament in Rwanda to determined to improve his scores, dispensing with Tanzanians Sadick Ibrahim and Emmanuel Mallya 6/62 and 6/3 6/1, respectively, only to meet a retiring Shabani Kasalo in the semis, and walking into a tough final against Saidi Nkurunzinza 4/6 6/4 4/6 to take second place, and earn a big chance to the Masters Tournament scheduled for later this year.