by Hollie Nielsen, AWC Central Scotland and AWC London
with contributions from Leslie Janoe, AWC Amsterdam, and Peninah Nthenya Musyimi, Founder of Safe Spaces
In previous articles, the Education Team has focused on the connection between Awesome Blossoms (AB) and the Education targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). In this article, we will focus on Safe Spaces’ (SS) basketball training program and its connection to SDG4.
SDG4.3 states: By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
Sometimes, though, a young woman needs financial help to get to secondary school or university. In the case of SS founder Peninah Nthenya Musyimi, the key to going to university turned out to be a basketball scholarship. Peninah had done very well in primary and secondary school. For her university studies, she received a bursary but also needed to make a substantial contribution of 40,000 Kenyan shillings. Neither she, her family nor her community could help with that large amount of money. Fortunately, Peninah heard about a basketball scholarship – except that she had no idea what basketball was to say nothing of knowing how to play. So, over the course of only one month and with much determination, Peninah learned to play basketball; she won the scholarship and achieved her goal of attending university. According to Peninah, “If you want something you never had, you need to be willing to do something you have never done.” In other words, and as the motto of Safe Spaces states “I Am the Change.” (To hear more in Peninah’s own words, please listen to her TEDx Talk.)
Using her own example, Peninah established important junior and senior basketball training programs at Safe Spaces. Numerous girls have learned to play basketball, and over 60 have been awarded scholarships to secondary school and university. The senior team plays competitively against other national teams in the premier league in Kenya and does very well at competitions. Through their grit and determination, the girls learn to be tough, resilient and good team players. In addition to helping further their education, the girls are learning a healthy lifestyle of exercise.
As Florence, one of the SS Peer Educators and basketball trainers says, “You can’t always be the strongest, most talented or most gifted person in the court, but you can be the most competitive and determined towards the goal.”
Safe Spaces uses the basketball training to:
- Educate: Teach girls basketball skills in combination with relevant life and job skills; develop their leadership skills to improve their prospects of work and self-sufficiency; build a talent pipeline to secure more life changing opportunities for girls now and in the future.
- Engage: With external stakeholders (schools and companies) via tournaments in the Nairobi Basketball League and premier league. This creates visibility for the girls, attracts possible scholarships with secondary schools and/or universities, and attracts potential employers for girls completing secondary school/university.
- Empower: By integrating life skills with sports, the program stimulates a philosophy that a healthy body makes a healthy mind. Safe Spaces girls develop a strong sense of self: leadership, determination, competition, teamwork. Empowered, they learn to perform under pressure, make decisions, and lead their own lives.
The basketball training is also connected with Awesome Blossoms through a nutrition program for the basketball teams. The availability of vegetables, especially greens, from the project has made it easier for the girls participating in active sports, especially in the basketball teams, to eat nutritious meals full of vitamins and minerals, which is good for their active life. Participants emphasized that vegetables are healthy and have helped them bridge the vitamins and minerals gap requirements they need to remain active.
IMPACT
- From 2017 to date, SS has won 10 basketball scholarships for high school every year. In the last two years, SS young women had five college scholarships to local universities.
- 47 girls currently have four-year scholarships for high school.
- The SS basketball team won the Nairobi basketball association championships in 2017 and 2019, giving two girls the opportunity to get jobs in the corporate world.
- SS has also won prizes as the best community team and most disciplined team in the league.
The SS basketball program has so many positives: enabling secondary and university education, promoting excellent life skills of resilience, tenacity, leadership and teamwork, developing healthy lifestyles through exercise and better nutrition, and reinforcing the motto “I Am the Change.”
We, as FAWCO members, should be proud of our link to Safe Spaces and of our contributions to AB. Let’s continue our good work: FAWCO members have until the end of February to make contributions to Target 5.0, Awesome Blossoms (AB). We aim to have sufficient contributions to AB to allow them to buy their own land for their hydroponic farms.
All photos courtesy of Safe Spaces.
