31 mars 2006

CÔTE DE IVOIRE: Youth Camp Kicks-Off in Yaounde

A youths holiday camp for basketball kicked of at the sports complex of the American School in Yaounde last Monday. Organised by the fellowship of friends of former basketball players in collaboration with a Yaounde-based basketball training center known as Athletes in Action (AIA), the programme brings together young children between the ages of eight and 15 years. The camp which will run till April 8, 2006, intends to detect young talents who are apt to practice the sport. Training sessions take place from 8:30am to 11:00 am daily. The programme will be led by Mme Ngoubeyou Wankou Bernadette, proprietor of the training center and a former international star.

She explained that the programme will give the children an opportunity to learn how to play basketball. She is also certain the center will produce players who will join the national team in future. "This is a personal challenge for me. I must produce future international stars for Cameroon from the training center. I must attain that objective," she said.

According to Mme Ngoubeyo, her goal is not only to train the children to play basketball but to bring them up as men and women of good characters. "Apart from the physical training, we mould their character as well," she added. Registration fees per child is CFA 10,000. About 50 children are expected to participate in this year's programme. Some 20 athletes have already begun with the training. She said she is certain that more children will join the camp in the days ahead. According to the coordinator, the major problem facing the center is the lack of equipment and money to run the programme.

According to the programme, an official ceremony for the award of participation certificates to the athletes will take place on Saturday April 1, 2006.

Athletes in action is a branch that is in charge of sports in the Campus for Christ international evangelistic movement.