South Sudanese civil society organization CEPO on Wednesday announced a plan to make a traditional throwing game into an organized sport practiced by schools and youths across the country.
Edmund Yakani, executive director of CEPO, made the remarks at a news conference at the Women’s Union office in Juba. He said the trial of this game will be played on Sunday at the playing ground of Zain Office in Juba with Maridi Christian Association.
“We are launching a new modified local sport and we are all aware that in South Sudan we have a game which is called throwing ball in Arabic known as ‘Boro-boruk’, which is a game normally played by our kids across the country,” he said.
He said that he thought the introduction of the game would help to create jobs for people as coaches and producers of sports equipment. He said they already earmarked 5000 USD for the initiative but he urged South Sudanese investors to invest in the project. He said that registration is open for 50 voluntary coaches to be trained.
Yakani said that they are still lobbying for the national government to choose one of the states as headquarters for the sport. “Our preferable location we are looking at is in Western Equatoria as it is commonly being played there.”
“Our target group in this game is specifically youth and schools, primary and secondary… and also our targets are youth who are school dropouts, training them as coaches and referrers to be an employment opportunity regardless of their gender,” he said.