GIZ and ITTF Foundation Conclude the Sport for Development Workshop in Kampala, Uganda
The ITTF Foundation in association with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Development Cooperation/GIZ on behalf of Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung/BMZ) held a capacity-building workshop on using Table Tennis for Development (TT4D), hosted in Kampala, Uganda, by the Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI). The workshop, the final in a series of three international workshops, centres on the use of Sport for Development (S4D), focusing on using table tennis for specific development outcomes.
GIZ and ITTF Foundation concluded the series of Sport for Development (S4D) workshops in Kampala, Uganda, on 10-13 September 2022. Participants come from various roles and projects, with a total of 22 people (17 male and 5 female); 7 of them are refugees. This workshop focused on using table tennis for mental health, education, and gender equality.
We started the workshop with an introduction to UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and S4D and a practical session from Sport for Development. Like the previous two workshops in Tehran and Pristina, the session was set in interactive and fun mode through group exercises and discussions. Three projects from the Dream Building Fund programme, the Rising Stars, Slum Ping Pong, and Hoima Network of Child Rights Clubs (HONECRIC), presented their initiatives in the workshop in hybrid mode. From this session, participants learned about gender empowerment and equality, ping pong for education, and how they overcame the challenges during the project implementation.
I feel so powerful. I feel so comfortable in my body being a woman after the workshop. – Daphne Musiimemta, project participant and coach, Slum Ping Pong.
The inspirational stories shared by the project leaders helped the participants to dive into the next session to design a social project that benefits the community.
I was able to digest the SDGs well, and how to set realistic and achievable competencies in a session. This training improved our programs and will interest more our players and the community in our work. – Lloyd Birungi Crain, Project leader and coach, HONECRIC.
After the workshop, most participants understand how to utilise table tennis for development, and 94% of them feel confident in using table tennis to solve the problems in their community. We thank all the project leaders and coordinators involved in this series of S4D workshops.
As a project leader, I am grateful for the capacity-building workshop I attended organized by ITTF Foundation and GIZ. I was able to acquire more knowledge about using Table Tennis Sport to promote Sustainable Development, how to strengthen our project's stakeholder involvement as well as different sustainability approaches for our project. I am now confident about our project's sustainable life span! - Kato Ssekah Abdu, Project Leader of the Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI).
A big thank goes to ICODI for being an incredible host and all workshop participants from ICODI, Slum Ping Pong and HONECRIC for joining. The Programmes Team gained significant knowledge and information based on real cases and experiences.
We would also like to thank Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Sport for Development for their trust and support - it has been an honour for us to conduct the very first TT4D workshops throughout the whole series.