The city of Mowe and its environment is presently witnessing a twist this festive period as a total of seventy children drawn from twenty-five Communities in Mowe, Ogun State, are taking part in the one-week Sport and Leadership Boot Camp currently held at No 4 Salvation Road, Pakuro in Mowe, Ogun State.
Meant for children between the ages of 6 to 11 years range, the weeklong empowerment capacity-building initiative runs from 16 to 21 December 2024 with five seasoned instructors as facilitators.
The instructors include Ms Abosede Akinsete (Table Tennis Coach), Ms Mary Thomas (Basketball Coach), Master Shawn Nariwoh (French instructor), Mr Nosa Idemudia (Drum and Piano instructor) and Mr Emmanuel Akpabio who is handling the Dance aspect of the capacity building event.
Packaged by Additional Sports and Education Initiative in partnership with Ladies in Sports International, the programme has ‘Awakening The Giant, She Can 4.0 as its theme and has the following as its main objective, bridging gender capacity, improving physical fitness and co-ordination, enhancing creativity and self-expression, developing basic French Language skills, boosting reading, expression and confidence, exposing participants to entrepreneurship and career opportunities fostering grit, character, focus, precision and mental alertness, according to Dr. Oluwaseun Nariwoh.
The programme is proudly supported by the Global Sports Mentoring Programme US Department of State (GSMP), Additional Sport and Entertainment Pro Limited (ASEP), Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Nosa Creative Design, Yemade Rquipmentss.
Addressing the participants on the opening day of the programme, Camp Coordinator, Dr Nariwoh Oluwaseun, a seasoned and multi-talented empowerment instructor, charged the lucky Campers to make good use of the opportunity provided by focusing on their purpose of being in camp in order to acquire new skills which will go a long way in helping their capacity building in future.
She urged them to be proactive by paying serious attention to their area of interest while in the camp.
“Many are called but few were chosen. Here you are as the chosen ones. Please make your parents proud by paying serious attention to what you are being taught in order for you to acquire new skills that will help you build your capacity in future”.
According to her, “The camp is aimed at catching them young. The best time to do this type of programme is the holiday period when children are free from academic activities. Instead of them wasting away all the period of the holidays playing, we felt that the best thing to do was to get them meaningfully engaged since no knowledge is lost, hence the camping programme.”
She thanked the parents for encouraging and releasing their wards to be part of the ‘2024 Mowe Sport and Leadership Boot Camp’ exercise.