By Eric Ojo
Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative in partnership with Edo State Senior Secondary Schools Education Board (SSEB), and Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), has trained additional 38 Physical Education teachers on netball in Edo.
CSED is a sport for change Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with a mission to use Nigerian children/youths participating in sports related activities to promote literacy and their social well-being. Its primary goal is to develop well balanced future sports men and women.
The NGO also aims at using sports to empower young persons to fulfil their potentials and achieve their dream of earning a living, while representing Nigeria in international sporting competitions.
Participants at the two-day training, which was held at the Media Centre and indoor sports hall of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin City, were drawn from the College of Education, Igueben, University of Benin (UNIBEN), and secondary schools across the state.
Currently, the game of netball, a sport that is played by more than twenty million people all over the world, is gaining momentum.
In March 2020, CSED Initiative facilitated the first ever Netball Africa training seminar in Nigeria that led to the certification of 24 netball coaches.
It was facilitated by Mary Waya. After the post-Covid era, In July 2022, CSED Initiative launched “Project 2027,” a netball empowerment programme that aim to train and equip one thousand two hundred Physical Education teachers and practitioners in Nigeria in the sport of netball.
Since then, over 340 teachers and practitioners have been trained in Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Ondo, Taraba, Enugu, Delta and Edo States. Based on the IDPs Uhogua experience, CSED Initiative also intend to introduce netball to marginalized and hard to reach members of the society in Nigeria.
Facilitated the Netball Africa certified coaches, which include Bethel Omigie, Onome Edema, Patience Odiri Urhobojevwe and Edema Fuludu.
The participants were taught the theoretical and practical aspects of netball, which though uniquely designed for girls and women, is now gradually trying to be inclusive by encouraging boys to learn how to play the game.
While addressing the participants, the National coordinator of CSED Initiative, Edema Fuludu expressed his happiness over the turnout at the event, noting that the seminar provided participants an opportunity to understand the basics of netball, as well as the importance of safeguarding in sport.
“We are indeed very happy and would want to thank the Chairman of Edo State Sports Commission, Yusuf Alli for collaborating with us, as well as the Honorable Commissioner of Education Edo State, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe for approving this training event for the future trainers who will be saddled with the responsibility of teaching netball to our young girls and boys at various public and private educational institutions in Edo State.
“We want our girls to learn and benefit from playing the game of netball in future. There are good possibilities of getting scholarships and playing the game of netball at professional level in the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, and New Zealand. Also, within the next eight years, netball is going to be included in the Olympic Games”, he said.
At the end of the training free netball starter packs (netball balls, finger held whistles, netball training bibs and netball rims) were distributed to the representatives of the various educational institutions that participated in the event.