Building and pushing dreams in East Africa
One year after the successful application and a close contact via mail, phone and skype, our Field Programmes Coordinator Rowan Fajerman is currently on site visits in East Africa.
Located in the 3rd largest slum in Africa the project aims to generate change for slum children. Table tennis is offered as an activity for youth providing access to education. Girls and persons with a disability receive a particular support.
Rowan focused his visit on capacity building, strengthen operations and helping identify potential partners. He points out:
“Partnerships play a huge role in the success of sport-for-development programmes. Our Dream Building Fund projects are supported by over 40 direct and indirect partners and we truly appreciate their support.”
Similar settings in Uganda. As the name reveals, also here table tennis is offered to slum children as a tool to access education and to work on broader issues such as drug abuse, equality, social awareness and tolerance.
The focus of Rowan’s visit here was to open doors to meetings with relevant stakeholders for the engaged NGO.
-
- A corporate company has invited them to put forward a sponsorship proposal and is interested in sponsoring events and children’s school fees.
- The National Olympic Committee will accept an Olympic Solidarity application and support a level 2 coaching course for Slum Ping Pong Coaches, which increases the potential for secondary school scholarships of their kids.
- The Uganda Secondary School Sport Association will encourage and push more schools through a target approach to offer scholarships for talented table tennis players.
Key sports stakeholders in Uganda came together to thank and acknowledge the International Table Tennis Federation & ITTF Foundation for their ongoing support of local table tennis for development projects which date back as far as 2005 with the Mbale Tigers and more recently Hoima Network of Child Rights Clubs - Honecric in 2013.
Mr. Denis Hamson Obua - State Sports Minister addressed the meeting to pledge his and the ministries to support the Ugandan Table Tennis Association in further developing and growing the programme.