A hundred Kenyan Physical Education teachers and educators have undergone training in disability-inclusive basketball coaching as efforts intensify to expand access to sport for children of all abilities.
The educators participated in the Basketball Experience Disability Inclusion (BE-DI) Teachers’ Awareness Day on Saturday at Fam Sports Arena Basketball Court in Kitengela, Kajiado County.
The event was part of the Basketball Experience programme, a collaboration between Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group and NBA Africa that uses basketball to promote education, life skills and inclusive opportunities for young people.
The training combined classroom sessions and on-court activities, introducing participants to the Jr. NBA curriculum and equipping them with practical skills to teach basketball fundamentals while adopting safe, age-appropriate and inclusive coaching methods.
Disability Inclusion Basketball Experience coach Kimani Peter Peter said the initiative aims to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to sustain the programme in schools, particularly as direct visits by programme coaches become less frequent.
“Today's training is more about passing on the programme to the teachers. Since we might not be visiting the school as often as we used to, the idea is to pass on the knowledge and the programme to the teachers. The educators must be empowered to have the skills and knowledge how to keep coaching the game,” said Kimani.
NBA Africa Director of Operations Kita Matungulu said adaptive coaching techniques, accessible activities and inclusive curriculum design would help remove barriers that prevent children with disabilities from participating in sport.
“This programme has provided enough growth in the ecosystem to allow us to really move forward with youth development and of course we've seen coaches development, youth development and we want to see this going forward. We are seeing tremendous growth among young people and the involvement of stakeholders around basketball, an example of Madina playing in the WNBA,” commented Matungulu.
He called for increased investment in sporting infrastructure, saying modern facilities would help identify and nurture talent, create income-generating opportunities and strengthen the sports economy.
“We want to see infrastructure here and that are big enough to host major basketball events. Kenya not only represents a greater economy in East Africa but also a large pool of talent talent that can play basketball and this is something that we want to tap in,” Matungulu said.
Basketball Experience coach Lavender Achieng said the programme would continue reaching schools to ensure the skills acquired translate into opportunities for more than 100,000 children across 128 schools in Kenya.
“We'll still be going to the school because we understand the value that the programme brought to the learners. Come January, I plan to go to my school back in Kilimani and give back to the community,” Achieng said.
Delivered in collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross, the programme's life skills component also highlights how sport can promote teamwork, resilience, leadership, health awareness and social responsibility.
By empowering teachers to accommodate diverse learning needs, Basketball Experience seeks to build inclusive sporting environments where children of all abilities can learn, develop and thrive together, both on and off the court.
