By Eric Ojo
A frontline youth cricket and disability sports charity based in the United Kingdom (UK), Lord’s Taverners has donated additional 712kg of sports equipment to Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative.
The charitable objective of the Lord’s Taverners, is to essentially empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing challenges of inequality’.
Founded in 1950 by a group of actors and BBC employees, the organization’s mission is to deliver high quality cricket programmes that will empower young people facing inequality to make positive choices, improve their health and wellbeing and achieve positive outcomes.
In addition, its work cut across the UK and beyond to provide inclusive and impactful cricket programmes, empowering young people with disabilities and from disadvantaged communities to develop the knowledge, skills, capabilities and confidence required to overcome the challenges of inequality, raise their aspirations and reach their potential.
CSED Initiative is a sport for change Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with a mission to use Nigerian children and youth participating in sports related activities to promote literacy and their social well-being. Its primary goal is to develop well balanced future sports men and women.
The NGO also aims at using sports to empower young persons to fulfil their potentials and achieve their dream of earning a living, while representing Nigeria in international sporting competitions.
The donation is the third consignment of sport kits/equipment that Lord’s Taverners has delivered to CSED Initiative since 2019. This brings its total donation to CSED Initiative to about 1500kg.
This was disclosed in a statement made available to the media by a Trustee of CSED Initiative over the weekend.
The statement said the latest donation 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.
“It would be recalled that CSED Initiative has in the past successfully distributed the donated kits 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”, the statement added.
It also further explained that the donated equipment will be freely distributed and allocated to projects that support vulnerable and hard to reach children and youth at IDPs Camp Uhogua, as well as a new project that will support asylum seekers/refugees in the Ogoja area in the Niger Delta axis.
The statement also disclosed that the Ogoja sports for refugees project will start in 2024, adding that the CSED Initiative has recently reached an agreement with the Field Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ogoja.
This, according to the statement, is 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”, it stressed.