04 Dec 2022

Over 400 children iparticipated in various sporting activities at the Re Ba Bona Ha sport festival in Maun on Saturday.

The youngsters played basketball, rugby, athletics, volleyball and softball.

Speaking at the festival, Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) projects officer, Frederick Kebadiretse, said the objective of the event was for children to have fun.

He highlighted that they had 30 coaches from different sport codes.

Kebadiretse said they brought the National Anti-Doping office to raise awareness on the dangers of doping in sports so that children could grow up with this knowledge.

He further noted that they saw it fit to incorporate the police to teach the future sport stars the repercussions of taking drugs not just in sport, but in their daily lives.

Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture principal programmes officer in Ngamiland, Refilwe Banda thanked BNSC for hosting the festival in Maun, adding there was plenty of potential in the district.

Banda stated that her ministry treated sport with the highest regard hence their support for the sport development programme.

“We are building future national teams from you and it all starts here, many of the successful sport stars were discovered from Re Ba Bona Ha so take this seriously,’’ she said.

Banda urged the youngsters to stay away from drugs of any kind, adding that drugs had ruined careers of many promising athletes.

She commended coaches for doing an excellent job of training young ones.

Botswana Police Service’ drugs and narcotics squad coordinator in Maun, Kenosi Tsaanang warned the children to stay away from drugs as they could lead to addiction.

He informed the youngsters that athletes should desist from any form of drugs unless medically prescribed by a medical officer.

Tsaanang further implored them to avoid going to places they were prohibited from entering, adding children should never agree to be sent to alcohol outlets by the elders.

He observed that they were cases where children under 18 years were involved in drugs across the country, noting that it was imperative that children learn from a young age that drugs were illegal and a danger.

Kgosi Galemodimo Maruping of Thito East, commended RBBH programme for expanding their portfolio from football to other codes which he said was an indication that it had grown tremendously.
Sport, he said, was all encompassing as it overlooked ones background and catered for every person no matter how far they might be from urbanization.

He thanked RBBH for coming to Maun, stating that this would build confidence and inspire Ngamiland children to aim for the stars and become future Olympians. ENDS