By Our Correspondent

A United Kingdom (UK) based sports recycling charity, Lord’s Taverners recently delivered 712kg of sports kits/equipment to CSED (Community Sports and Educational Development) Initiative.

This was done by the Management of Lord’s Taverners as part of their effort to empower children and youths in taking part in grassroots sports activities. Since 2019, this is the third consignment of sport kits/equipment that Lord’s Taverners has delivered to CSED Initiative.

The latest kits/equipment delivery brings Lord’s Taverners total donation to CSED Initiative to about 1500kg. It would be recalled that CSED Initiative has in the past successfully distributed the donated kits/equipment to some of the projects, secondary schools and university that they currently work in partnership with among whom are Edo State Cricket Association, ABU Zaria cricket team, IDP Camp Uhogua, netball activities in Taraba, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Lagos and Akwa Ibom states.

This time around, a Trustee of CSED Initiative stated that the recently donated kits/equipment by Lord’s Taverners will be freely donated to projects that support vulnerable and hard to reach children and youths at IDPs Camp Uhogua, as well as a new project that will support asylum seekers/refugees in the Ogoja area. The Ogoja sports for refugee’s project will start in 2024.

The Trustees stated that CSED Initiative has recently reached an agreement with UNHCR field office in Ogoja to support asylum seekers/refugees and members of their host community in Ogoja, by delivering sports for change training programmes for teachers and students in the three separate refugees’ camps.

“Apart from supporting the training of teachers in football, we will provide the children and youths with some of the free kits/equipment that we received from Lord’s Taverners. Also, access to training in sports like badminton, cricket, netball, table tennis, chess, scrabble and taekwondo will be gradually introduced to P.E. teachers and selected students at the refugees’ camps and in the Ogoja community.

The goal is to use sports and access to quality training to promote peace and unity between the refugees and members of the Ogoja community.”