Sports Development Archives

Many children at Miale program are involved in different sports e.g. volleyball, netball, football etc and they feel very proud because this involvement has assisted them in personal growth and development. Miale football club in Kibera and Muranga is one of the many clubs which the organization has initiated. The clubs are composed of talented children who are ready to advance their football skills into a higher level. The children met during the holiday program and they did some warm ups before engaging in a thorough training session. After the training they played seven aside within themselves. The game was very enjoyable but they still need more training to sharpen their skills. Wilson who is very talented commented “I want to be like David Beckham when I grow up”. Miale program will continue to identify and nurture their talents.
its time to warm up
Boys playing football
Girls playing netball

13 years old George Oluoch may not know that he shares a name with one of the world’s greatest players the legendary GEORGE BEST who played for Manchester united and England. But one thing he knows for sure is that he is the top player in the under 14 team that has been making good progress in their development.

George is our under 14 captain. What a player and a leader the boy has been to our team! Apart from his football ability, he has also been a good example to the rest of the players displaying great leadership skills. George is well behaved and takes up other responsibilities that might be well above him given his tender age.

In the absence of the coach, he takes the leading role by organizing his team mates and taking them through the drills and coaching sessions with such authority that you can only admire. The players respect him a lot and this has made him a very influential player in the team.

The under 12 and under 8 teams refer to him as coach because during his free time he takes them through coaching sessions. For all these GEORGE is our BEST player!

Kids Joy made a sports donation of balls and playing strips to the International Humanitarian Home in Nakuru, Kenya on 31st March, 2012. The home which takes care for orphaned and abandoned children from the Pokot Community entirely relies on donations and well wishers.

The donations we made were well received with a lot of excitement from the kids there who love playing games and sports during their free time. The orphanage administrator thanked Kids Joyfor the kind gesture which she said will go a long way in assisting the home meet their sporting needs. Thanks to all our partners who have made this possible!

Kids joy sports center has been in existence for the last 8 years and what a journey it has been from the time we took up the challenge to make a difference in the lives of young promising Kenyans. We have achieved a lot since we set up the program despite the many challenges that we face in our area of operation.

Identifying a talent and developing it especially in a child is something to be happy about. Our trainings will definitely make a difference in the talented children and change their lives to the best- that’s our aim.

Johari foundation who is the major supporter of the program has been very supportive and has stood by in every task that we have under taken and it is for this reason that we have decided to take stock of our achievements.

For the next two months, we shall trace some of our former players/members to see how they are fairing in their lives and how kids joy impacted their lives. This will involve stating their profile and carrying out personal interviews on their lives and reporting on one player every week in our blog. So join me starting next few weeks as we trace our former players and find out what they are up to.

A new page was opened in Kenyan football when our very own Victor Wanyama became the first ever Kenyan player to sign a professional contract to turn out for Celtic football club in the Scottish premier league. Victor Wanyama was signed from Germinal Beerschot Antwerp f.c. which is a first division club in the Belgium Republic where he played in two successive years before making his dream move to Scotland. This is a clear indication that Kenyan football has come of age and can now boast of producing quality players who can match the top players from anywhere in the world. Victor is a product of the many youth soccer programs in Kenya that seek to identify young talent and groom them to their full potential. One such programme is Kids Joy Sports Center which is supported by Johari Foundation and prides itself in training young players in their two centres in Nairobi and Nakuru towns. It is worth mentioning at this point that Victor Wanyama honed his skills at JMJ soccer centre in Nairbi and is the younger brother of Inter Milan'sMc Donald Mariga who is also a product of the Kenyan youth system. These are players who have brushed shoulders with players of Kids joy in various tournaments that both clubs participated in, and so Victor wanyamas move to Scotland gives a lot of hope to the many Kenyan youth who are hoping to turn pro one day.

July was a busy month with weekly training at our centres with one major activity taking place. We participated in the Safaricom sakata challenge where we faired very well with a podium finish in the men’s category. One of our players was voted the most promising player of the tournament. Very exciting! The more reason why Kids Joy should be very vibrant.
Kids joy seeks to:-

•To promote children in sports
•Discovering talent and promote the best young footballers in Miale and in different parts
of Kenya
•Give children an avenue to expose their talents to the country,
•To take their football to a higher level and to help the children live their dream

Sports being a key area where children learn and grow through social interaction, Kids joy ensures that children learn football skills from a very young age as well as sharing and interaction. We also give the children a great opportunity to have fun considering that they all come from very vulnerable backgrounds where fun is not a priority. Kudos Kids Joy!

Kid’s joy sports centre is a youth based sports programme for children in Kenya who come from under privileged back grounds. Most of the kids that we teach are orphans, destitute and those who are poor and mainly live in the slums, orphanages or low cost housing. Our programme seeks to put a smile on their faces through sports and this we achieve by providing them with an opportunity to play their favorite sport at our centres. We provide them with basic sporting equipments e.g. balls, training equipments, strips, playing boots e.t.c. We also carry out weekly training sessions at our centers where the kids are taught important values apart from the normal sports training. Our outreach programme gives support to other youth centers, children’s homes and schools by providing them with basic sporting equipment and offering basic coaching courses. We also organize youth soccer tournaments both in the urban and rural areas.

Considering that this was the first ever Johari seven aside tournament, the turnout was very impressive.
The seven participating schools were more than happy to have been in the pilot tournament.

As Johari,
we feel proud having achieved our objective. The fun filled day was more than we could think of. Having placed different schools in the pitch for this inaugural event, the participants showed nothing less of joy and fun.

This to me as the social development manager left a mark in my heart that we as Johari were able to leave a mark in the lives of the participants, even if it was only for a day, but the impact was great.

Getting Companies to partner or sponsor the tournament was the main challenge. Though the event has lessons to learn, we are proud to have kicked off so well in spite of everything. We have created relationship with schools and a few companies as we look forward to a bigger event next year which will involve even Girls teams.

This day we took the young girls in the apprenticeship program (YEP) out into the field to teach them a few things about business. And there was no other better way than that of using practical team building activities and experiential learning.
One of the games that were used included the football game. And this is a snippet of the story as written by Lilian Wanja.
The game was a football game. Two teams in the same field and having a common goal, to score. Only now there are competing and protecting there own goal area the opponents not to score.
In all business there is competition. It is the business person to organize his/her team to win the game and prove the better business person.