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By Our Correspondent

As part of events marking the celebration of International Table Tennis Day, the
International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF on April 6th donated various table tennis equipment to the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP Camp in Uhogua in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State, South-South Nigeria.

The equipment donated include canvass shoes, table tennis balls, table tennis rackets and T-shirts.

The National Coordinator of of Community Sports and Education Development, CSED Initiative, Edema Fuludu. presented the items to some of the selected male and female members of the IDPs Camp. Until the donation, the camp had access to one hand crafted table tennis board.

Mr Edema, a former Super Eagles stars, handed over three new hand crafted table tennis board that was donated by CSED Initiative to the management of the camp. Two of these new table tennis boards will be used by female students/resident of the camp, while the boys will use the other one in order to develop their table tennis skills.

Receiving the items, Pastor Evelyn Ekhator on behalf of the management ff the IDPs Camp commended the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for extending the benefit of “Table Tennis United” to their rural part of Benin City.

Pastor Ekhator assured the ITTF and CSED Initiative that the table tennis equipment will be properly utilized by the children and youths of the camp.

It would be recalled that in 2018, CSED Initiative donated a table tennis board to residents of the camp, but it got damaged due to being over-used.

Though CSED Initiative is an NGO partner of the NTTF (Nigeria Table Tennis Federation), lack of fund has prevented them from implementing their grassroots table tennis programme. Now that they have been able to commission durable handcrafted table tennis boards, CSED intends to launch their grassroots table tennis programme in Edo and Delta States in 2023.

An important part of CSED grassroots table tennis programme is the training of Physical Education teachers, who will in turn impart their knowledge on their students.