Utilising the educative power of sport.

The development of the Namibian youth through sport, particularly basketball, has been the brainchild of the Technical Basketball Academy founder and basketball player Titus Mwahafa. The second edition of the TBA Sportfest that took place on Saturday at the Van Rhyn Primary School sports field hosted more than a hundred learners from various schools in Windhoek. The event targeted government schools from the outskirts of the city in the hope of educating them in life skills through everyday games that have been fine-tuned to accommodate skills that could enhance cognitive function in the group of young learners

“Using sport, particularly basketball, as a tool to develop the next class of African leaders to solve some of Africa’s problems through such events by educating them on life skills,” explained the founder and organiser of the event, Titus Mwahafa.

The various unorthodox and fine-tuned sports games included volleyball, blindfolded soccer, three-legged soccer, chess, tug of war and recycling basketball.

“I had so much fun today playing chess with people from other schools and making new friends with people from other schools. I have learned so much from these games about working together, especially in the three-legged soccer,” stated a grade 6 learner from Namutoni Primary School, Tuhafeni Mukete.

The Technical Basketball Academy with a prestigious group of board members, such as Bank of Namibia’s Sam Shivute and David Shimwino from Shimwino and Sons, has been facilitating both editions of the sports festival through sponsorships by NamPower and First National Bank (FNB), with FNB as the key sponsor for this year’s sports festival.

The academy was established in 2015 with several programmes such as the Basketball Swords Programme, whose aim is to use the power of basketball to attract Africa’s youth to TBA, alongside the Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme seeks to provide its student athletes with the knowledge and inspiration to create entrepreneurial ventures on the continent that will cause large scale indigenous transformation. “Playing basketball makes me realise that doing my best does matter and that every practice is a victory, and that teaches me that every step whether small or big will bring me closer to my goals in life. Playing with TBA brings every basketball play, whether losing or winning joy. I just don’t ever want to stop playing. TBA teaches me how to interact with other people and it also makes me stronger as a person,” said TBA alumnus Medina Shanika.