ReachOut Centre Trust Executive Director Taib Abdulrahman (L ) and Changamwe Rollers Organizing Secretary Meshack Lemmy at St. Charles Lwanga primary school in Changamwe during a basketball sports day. (Photo/Maxwell).Engaging youth in sports activities will enable many youths explore their talents and avoid indulging in criminal activities or drug abuse.
Further involving youth in sporting activities is the great exposure where many youths expand their reason and venture into real efforts of building their future lives.
Addressing ‘Changamwe Rollers’, a basketball sports youth group based in Changamwe, Mombasa, ReachOut Center Trust Executive Director Taib Abdulrahman said that involving youth in sports activities has proved to be an effective way of making youth find their destination in education by securing sponsors in the country and abroad as well.
According to Taib, sporting activities have a special place in youth in Mombasa and noted that ReachOut will also merge the sports activities with free counseling and guidance so that they can make a good judgment between good deed and vices in the society.
“We are partnering with Changamwe rollers, basketball youth group since they have proved to be very effective in counseling youth whereby most youths are joining after seeing their colleagues excel in life,” said Taib.
He, however, appealed to parents in the area to ensure that they support their children whenever they see signs of talent development and not demanding them to take courses they do not wish to pursue.
“It is through such parental pressure and poor guidance that our youth are doing drugs because of distress and lack of parental comfort,” said the anti-drug abuse activist.
He appealed to political leaders in Mombasa to take sports seriously and launch various programs geared towards engaging youth and making them busy so that they do not indulge in drug abuse.
“Apart from participating in many sporting activities organized by Changamwe rollers, we are also providing them with free counseling since we know they are sexually active whereby we do health testing and counseling as well as provide them with condoms” he added.
Taib revealed that in 2018, ReachOut Centre Trust is already sourcing for funds so as to expand youth sporting activities in all the 6 Mombasa sub-counties of Changamwe, Jomvu, Mvita, Kisauni, Nyali, and Likoni.