Sport For Life achieving its goals

Twenty students, sixteen males and four females, from the Sion Hill Government School, who are part of the Sport For Life Programme, are enjoying every bit of it.{{more}}

The programme, which is into its second month of operation, takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. every Saturday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, with the participants being coached in Cricket, Mathematics, Language Arts, basic Information Technology and Healthy Lifestyles.

The pilot phase of the Vincentian leg of the programme was launched here February 19 and seeks to provide sport education and healthy lifestyle training to disadvantaged children between ten and sixteen years old who are failing to reach their potential in their academics.

One of the participants, Brian Hannibal, gleefully revealed to SEARCHLIGHT: “I am enjoying it, especially when I get to go on the computer.”

Mathematics instructor Kenneth Burgin also told SEACHLIGHT that the students are making the best of the experience and are showing interest in all the activities.

“They really look forward to the Saturdays,” Burgin added.

Such is their interest that Burgin revealed that eventhough Saturday, May 1, is a public holiday, the students were still eager to attend, even though no activities had been planned for that day.

Level Two Cricket Coach Irvin Warrican told SEARCHLIGHT that the programme thus far has been beneficial to the participants, as he has seen marginal strides in their attention span.

“It is a lot of fun, and they are enjoying it,” Warrican observed.

He said that because of the inclusion of the Cricket component, the interest and enthusiasm were great.

The Sport for Life Programme is being supported by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

As is the case with the three other centers opened in the region, in Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Barbados, the local learning centre located at the Media Centre at the Arnos Vale Playing Field has a state of the art Information Technology suite, outfit with 20 computers and white board and projector.

Additionally, the students are bussed to and from the venue and are provided with lunch.

The Sport For Life programme will move out of the pilot phase in September at the beginning of the next school year. It will then be expanded to accommodate 50 students. Further growth is planned over the next few years.(RT)