Community Sports Coaching Foundation

CSCF would use the Elevate Prize funding to build a sustainable academy and East African basketball hub in Kampala, Uganda. We use basketball and education as vehicles for progress and to elevate the most marginalised youth from the refugee camps, slums and third world.

We want a location to provide scholarships for the tallest and most athletic young student athletes that will be able to graduate from our future leaders program with a high school education and the skills to obtain full athletic scholarships to higher education worldwide. The idea is to produce a growing alumni responsible for giving back to their communities and nations together as a group.

If selected as a winner we would use the prize funding to buy land and construct the Outdoor Courts, Education Center, Dormitories, Cafeteria, Gym, Outdoor Amphitheatre and lastly the Indoor Arena which will be key to making the project sustainable far into the future. We will charge entry fees to events and the profits will sustain the annual running costs and staff.

I was inspired by Luol Deng who is a refugee from South Sudan and sought asylum in my home nation of England, went to the NBA and has become a generous and charitable role model. While working for CSCF and using sports as a tool to mentor the youth in London I began to learn more about his home nation and its history of war, lack of infrastructure and need for modernisation and aid. Luol comes from the tallest tribe of people on the planet who are starting to realise that their height can propel them from poverty. This led me to develop plans to use my passion of basketball as a vehicle for progress, development and uplifting the next generation in East Africa. I originally started in Kenya and formed a team that all went on to higher learning and many on full athletic scholarships worldwide. Currently I am based in Uganda filming and making highlights to link the youth with high school coaches in the USA that can give them scholarships. The next step is to construct an academy in Kampala and a basketball hub bringing the whole Ugandan and East African basketball community together.

According to UNESCO of all regions in the world, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of about 6 and 11 are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14. According to UIS data, almost 60% of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school. 

Our goal is to build a basketball academy with 96 full high school scholarships for 48 boys and 48 girls ages 14-18 per year. They will have professional coaches and teachers guiding them on an academic route and graduating with IGCSE and A - Levels. The students will also be instructed in an intensive preparation for an American equivalency exam and SAT/ ACT tests for eligibility at colleges and Universities in the USA. They will have access to computers, books in a library, a video room and daily meals, accommodation, uniforms and laundry taken care of. 

The academy will also be used as an East African basketball hub used constantly by the community in and around Kampala, Uganda for all domestic and international competitions, tournaments and leagues organised by the basketball Federation.

We truly believe in ‘‘Teaching someone to fish and feeding them for a lifetime’’ just with basketball...

Instead of emergency relief or attempting to tackle problems in a question of days or weeks were are trying to make a long term, exponential and sustainable impact in East Africa by elevating some of the poorest and disenfranchised youth and turning them into the leaders and role models of the future.

Amongst all of the children currently out of education due to unaffordable school fees there are athletic teenagers including 7 foot tall boys who if were born in the USA would have a 17% chance of reaching the NBA and have access to lucrative salaries. With high salaries our alumni could invest in solving recurring problems in Africa. With a group of athletes making contributions together there will be a team that can address lack of clean water, sustainable energy, low income housing, gender equality, sex education, education itself and focus on developing infrastructure in their home nations. So much money has already been invested in Africa which many times leaves only a short lived impact but by investing in training and creating leaders Africa will finally be able to rise.

Basketball can be used as a tool to educate people on working as a team, collaborating and developing character, discipline, perseverance, self-esteem, camaraderie, critical thinking, problem solving and leadership skills. Basketball is the core of our project be we want our project to make an even wider impact.

Our idea is to create not just a basketball academy but a sustainable future leaders program. Many of the former Dankind Academy players come from a war torn South Sudan and were in the Kakuma Refugee camp while some came from extreme poverty in Kibera one of the biggest slums in the world. We want to provide opportunities to some of the most marginalised people on the planet and equip them with skills so that they can rise and be role models who donate, build and make a huge impact in their communities as a team.

To tackle issues such as corruption that is the root of a lack of access to clean water, lack of sanitation and infrastructure in Africa it will take a strong group of people motivated in making the right changes and developing infrastructure in the right way. We want our alumni to be that team.