In the bid to finding talents in the grassroots, particularly among children, APSE have commenced the third edition of the Awakening The Giants Table Tennis Clinic.
The programme which is a partnership between the Nigeria Table-tennis Federation and Additional Plus Sports and Education (APSE) had over 50 girls in attendance.
Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere will have a busy summer this August as the Sports Commission stages a 3-week kids empowerment activities to teach children new skills before they get back to school in September. Sports247 was on ground to witness the commencement of this year’s Awaking The Giants, a three-week free summer Table Tennis and mentorship clinic, built for children between the age of 6 to 11.
Drawing inspiration from the just concluded Common Wealth Games where team Nigeria historically did the country proud, organizers of the clinic have deemed it fit to nurture young talents who will do the country and themselves proud in the future. Speaking to sports247, Kayode Okunoye, Sports Officer, in Lagos State Sports Commission has said this program is to catch children young.
“This is to groom children from the grassroots, catch them young. We teach them various things like dancing, languages, and most importantly, we are teaching them how to play table tennis because we see sports as a tool that can improve thier lives and condition when they get older.
With reference to the recent success of the likes of Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume, Inspiration has been drawn by children as well as parents to allow kids do one sports or the other as the Awaking The Giants has seen over 50 kids register in this year’s campaign.
” We didnt have it like this in previous editions. All parents are now inspired by the Tobi Amusans of this world as children want to participate in one sports or the other now. That’s why we are setting this up. We now have up to 50 kids in our registration books.”
According to the administrator, this edition of Awaking The Giants has given children of every tribe and religion the opportunity to integrate with others as there are a lot of cultural activities involved as well. This is targeted to bring unity and harmony among different tribes and religions. “This is highly for social integration, as we showcase different cultural events. We also teach them French and other languages. All of these are targeted to broaden thier knowledge before they resume back to school. Okunoye concludes.
