Kenya gets 50 playing tables from Japan
Kenya Table Tennis Association chairman Andrew Mudibo (left) receives equipment from Japan Information and Culture Centre Director/First Secretary Seiji Tashiro (right) on July 14, 2018 at MYSA, Komarock grounds. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |
What you need to know:
- Mudibo was at hand to receive the donation from Seiji Tashiro, who is the Director/First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy, during a colourful ceremony at Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) headquarters, Nairobi over the weekend.
- Mudibo said that MYSA is part of the 50 institutions that will benefit from 20 tables, with the remaining 30 being distributed countrywide. The 50 institutions in Nairobi have been divided into 16 regions where each region will get one table.
Close to 50 institutions in Nairobi will benefit from 50 table tennis tables donated by Japanese firm, San Ei, which is the official equipment suppliers of the 2016 Rio Olympic and 2020 Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The donation is part of girls' table tennis development project “Sports For Tomorrow” which targets to have over 5,000 girls playing the game by the year 2020.
Kenya Table Tennis Association (KTTA) president Andrew Mudibo said tables were shipped to the country by the Japanese government for free with the Kenyan government helping with clearance at the port of Mombasa.
Mudibo was at hand to receive the donation from Seiji Tashiro, who is the Director/First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy, during a colourful ceremony at Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) headquarters, Nairobi over the weekend.
Mudibo said that MYSA is part of the 50 institutions that will benefit from 20 tables, with the remaining 30 being distributed countrywide. The 50 institutions in Nairobi have been divided into 16 regions where each region will get one table.
“The initiative seeks to have 5,000 girls below the age of 12 years playing the sport by the year 2020,” Mudibo said.
“More so, we are also keen on mentoring and empowering the girls to be better persons in life besides playing the game.”
Mudibo said San Ei will soon send engineers into the country to help the country produce the tables locally so as to save the country the extra costs.
San Ei Corporation president Shin Miura noted that through “Sports For Tomorrow”, they will offer to girls in Kenya to play the game, learn life skills and prepare them for brighter future.
“We shall also offer technical guidance to local people by using local material to produce table tennis tables since this will help achieve sustainable growth,” said Miura.
