Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative in partnership with Edo State Senior Secondary Schools Education Board (SSEB), and Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), recently trained 38 secondary school Physical and Health Education teachers, Physical Education practitioners from UNIBEN and College of Education Igueben. 

 

The training event which was held on 18th and 19th January 2024, was on the game of netball, a sport that is played by more than twenty million people all over the world.The training event which was held at the Media Centre and indoor sports hall of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, was facilities by Netball Africa certified coaches, which include Bethel Omigie, Onome Edward Fuludu, Patience Odiri Urhobojevwe and Edema Fuludu.

 

The participants were taught the theoretical and practical aspects of netball, which though, uniquely designed for girls and women, is now gradually trying to be inclusive by encouraging boys to learn how to play the game. 

 

While addressing the participants, the National coordinator of CSED Initiative, Edema Fuludu, stated that he was happy with the turnout at the training event, noting that the two-day seminar provided participants an opportunity to understand the basics of netball, as well as the importance of safeguarding in sport.

 

 Edema Fuludu said,  "we are indeed very happy. And would want to thank the Chairman of Edo State Sports Commission, Yusuf Alli,  for collaborating with us, as well as, the Honorable Commissioner of Education Edo State, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, for approving this training event for the future trainers who will be saddled with the responsibilities of teaching netball to our young girls and boys at various public and private educational institutions in Edo State"

 

"We want our girls to learn and benefit from playing the game of netball in future. There are good possibilities of getting scholarships and playing the game of netball at professional level in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Also, within the next eight years, netball is going to be included in the Olympic Games," he enthused confidently. 

 

At the end of the training event, free netball starter packs (netball balls, finger held whistles, netball training bibs and netball rims) were distributed to the representatives of the various educational institutions.

 

It would be recalled that in March 2020, CSED Initiative facilitated the first ever Netball Africa training seminar in Nigeria that led to the certification of 24 netball coaches. That training was facilitated by Mary Waya. After the post-Covid era, In July 2022, CSED Initiative launched "Project 2027," a netball empowerment programme that aims to train and equip one thousand two hundred P. E. Teachers and practitioners in Nigeria in the sport of netball. 

 

Since then, over 340 P.E. Teachers and practitioners have been trained in Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Ondo, Taraba, Enugu, Delta and Edo States. Based on the IDPs Uhogua experience,  CSED Initiative also intend to introduce netball to marginalized and hard to reach members of the society in Nigeria.