Help us, cry cash-strapped skating team
What you need to know:
- Well, the team is not locked up in some foreign prison in the strict sense of the word.
Like on many previous occasions, the Kenyan roller skating national team is banged up abroad, again.
Well, the team is not locked up in some foreign prison in the strict sense of the word.
Rather, the cash-strapped team of four skaters and one official has been forced to activate their survival instincts just to get by one day at a time at the ongoing inaugural African Roller Games in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital, Kinshasa.
A distress call posted on Facebook by New Horizon Skating Club coach, Mercy Omwina, paints a grim picture of the dire straits that the small contingent has found itself in.
“We are back on road races today, (Friday), keep the team in prayer. We are running short of accommodation money. Kindly support with any amount,” wrote Omwina, who didn’t travel to Kinshasa but has been following the team’s progress from Nairobi.
Since they arrived in the DRC on Monday, the team that by Thursday had bagged five medals on the track (two gold and three silver) has been surviving on a shoe-string budget having failed to secure government sponsorship.
Team manager Naomi Wambui said the team had inadequate cash for boarding and registration fees.
