NGO plans nursery for martial arts athletes

Nigeria’s quest to become a strong player in martial arts has received a boost from a non-governmental organisation, Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), which is planning to set up a nursery, where young talented girls will be equipped with life skills, boost their self-confidence, improve their self-defence and fitness level.  

Speaking at a girls-only taekwondo championship in Abuja, the executive secretary of the organisation, Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, said that the move is in alliance with the organisation’s mission to empower youths through sports. He said that the vision is to create a safe space for girls to learn and build themselves.

Akin-Jimoh stated that such sports as taekwondo and football are used for life skills development, just as taekwondo, not only prepares girls for self-defence, but also teaches them conflict management.

She said, “We work mainly with girls because we want to encourage them to take to sports. We also encourage parents to allow their girl/child to do sports, while using both football and taekwondo to teach life skills like self-confidence, self-esteem, defence, communication and team building.”

“We know that there are many competitions, but most times, the competitions are for both boys and girls. So, we wanted to create a safe space for girls so that they can come, communicate, interact with themselves, enjoy themselves and learn from each other. That’s the reason we started the female taekwondo championship.”

She observed that the event sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank, which had a massive turnout of about 150 young girls from both public and private schools in the North Central, is the most attended championship since the inception of the initiative.

“We had one last year at Teslim