With an injection of some big bucks from UNICEF – the Belize Basketball Federation will host one thousand, three hundred children at its annual summer camp this year. Simultaneous camps will be held in all six districts beginning July 13 through to Tuesday July 21st.
Now that’s ambitious! And the basketball federation’s president, its secretary general, and UNICEF’s country representative Rana Flowers spoke to us about the collaboration.
Julian Murillo, Secretary General - BBF
“The program will focus on youths from ages 10 to 17 both boys and girls and we will be having female coordinators who will assist in running the camp so parents shouldn’t be concerned about safety of their children. We are targeting about 1300 children across the country. While that is an ambitious plan, we feel we have quite capable district associations who will be able to implement the program at very high standards.”
Paul Thompson, President – Basketball Federation
“We will teach life skills to the children, life values, building sports personal development, the fundamentals of basketball and rules of basketball. We have as I said teamed up with UNICEF and they are funding this program.”
Rana Flowers, UNICEF Country Rep.
“This is a part of our overall approach related to positive adolescent development, really trying to reach into the communities where the young people are and particularly over the long summer period, trying to ensure that the young people, adolescent children have activities that engage them and that occupied their time."
"It is also a way that you mobilize young people into valuing themselves and into valuing team work. And so you bring the young people together, you teach them some of the skills –just relating to sport – just by being a part oft the team is crucial because they are learning to respect rules, thy are learning to respect each other and hey are getting self-confidence, they are building self-esteem, they are identifying for themselves trust adults to whom they can turn and they feel a part of their communities.”
Enrollment is free and you can sign up by contacting the basketball federation branch in your district. Following the camp – a major rally and championship tournament will be held on July 24th. UNICEF donated 20 thousand u.s. dollars.