Thursday, May 31, 2012

Our Uganda travels continued with our Notre Dame students having the opportunity to teach the Play Like A Champion Today® Player Champion Curriculum to the children in both Kkindu Primary and Hopeful School, both village schools, far from the city center. Every child received their very own book – much to their delight. The students helped the children identify that everyone can and should play sports because it is good for our health, it is fun and it is the opportunity to learn lessons and values. Then our students helped the school children identify the characteristics of a Champion and how each and every child can become a Champion in sport and in life. An integral part of this work was conducting research along with the classroom character lessons. The children were given pre and post tests addressing the role of sport in their life. Play Like A Champion Today® will analyze the results of these tests to assess the role that sport might play in a developing country. We will also analyze whether the city school children pose a different profile than the rural village school children when they are involved in sport. As our PLACT partners across the United States were presenting our PLACT youth coach workshop on Saturday in cities across America, Clark and Kristin were presenting an adapted form of our youth coach workshop on Friday in a classroom in Kkindu presenting to 25 coaches from the village and the surrounding sub-county. On Saturday, Clark and Kristin worked with Dr. Harriet Mutonyi, Faculty Director of Education at UMU, Uganda Martyrs University and Alex Ndibwami, Athletic Director at UMU. Sports leaders (tutors, coaches etc.) that are members of the National University Sports Federation of Uganda (NUSFU)and coaches from the surrounding Nkozi subcounty joined to experience how to most effectively lead children in an educational sports experience. We discovered the universal reality of coaching as a ministerial service; the full understanding of the spirituality present in the sport experience and the Universal values of a Champion. Coaches embraced the GROW approach to child development and discussed together how to effectively communicate the lessons of sport. Coaches from both workshops set off to their home schools/parishes to impart this fresh information to their home communities. PLACT now has trained trainers spread throughout the fields and cities of Uganda. Pictured here are coaches from the UMU workshop and the Village of Kkindu.