By: Ngozi Anna Akunne
A National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Naomi Kareem, in partnership with Hot Coal Basketball Club at the weekend donated a well-furnished computer laboratory and a state-of-the-art basketball court to LEA Primary School, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja.
The donations were part of a social intervention programme by the Hot Coal Hands of Care Project in commoneration of the 2022 Childrens’ Day Celebration.
Speaking during the hand-over ceremony, founder and proprietor of Hot Coal Basketball Club, Ubon Udoh, said the project was inspired by Kareem and an avenue for the kids to access mentorship, learn life skills and imbibe discipline through basketball.
Udoh noted that the project was part of the foundation’s numerous social intervention projects and part of activities lined up to mark the international children’s day celebration.
“First of all, Hot Coal Basketball as an organisation has what we refer to as, “The hands of care project”. This is how we do social development intervention projects because basketball for us is more than just the game, but also about adding value. In the past, we’ve embarked on trainings to address some health-related issues faced by basketball players and also held intervention programmes for orphanages. We’ve been doing this since 2014.
“So, we just had an opportunity to come and do something special here after Naomi (Kareem) approached us to help donate these facilities to the school as part of her Community Development Service (CDS) project. I am just happy that we were able to put this together,” he said.
“It might interest you to know that the area where we chose to construct the state-of-the-art basketball court used to be a rubbish dump.
“Initially, our intention was to construct and fully equip a computer laboratory for the school, but my attention was drawn to the dumping area when we visited the school and it wasn’t good at all for the hygiene of the pupils.
“So, we got permission from the head teacher to clear it and build this state-of-the-art basketball court for the kids and you can see how excited they are about it. I think it is really important that we do things like these. This is more than just a basketball court. It is a place where the kids can dream, where they can believe in themselves, learn to be confident and boost their self-esteem,” Udoh stated.
Kareem, a serving corp member with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said she chose to embark the project because of her love for humanity.
Source: sportingtribune.com
