East Enders- A Sports Charity (One Year Later)
Started in 2022 as a company limited guarantee, East Enders is currently undergoing certification as a Sports Charity Organization operating in the 12 districts of Busoga. The mission of the organization is to Identify, nurture and professionalize grassroots sports talent in Busoga and Uganda with Cricket being the flagship sports discipline.
Other sports of focus are: Tennis, Golf, Swimming, Boxing, Hockey, Badminton, Chess and Equestrian.
The organization is headquartered in Jinja City.
In the last one year of operation, we have been active in recruiting and training young girls and boys in cricket, tennis, golf and boxing.
We have partnerships with Uganda Cricket Association to manage cricket in Nile Basin (Busoga Region). We have a working relationship with Uganda Tennis Association to promote Tennis in the region. We also have a facility usage relationship with the Jinja Golf Club to use its facilities for the training of golf and tennis.
Through those partnerships we have managed to train:
- 50 community kids in tennis and golf
- Over 1000 boys and girls in cricket
The hope is that from those kids, Jinja and the country at large will get the new cricket, tennis and Golf pros and national team players.
Activities achieved so far.
Tennis:
- We have held recruitment and trainings in one village and kids from Jinja Senior Secondary School.
- One Holiday camp for under 15 kids conducted at the Jinja Golf Club.
Cricket
A partnership with Uganda Cricket Association to run the Nile basin hub has enable us achieve the following so far.
- Introduce cricket to villages of: Namulesa, Mafubira, Walukuba, Kivubuka, Amber Court, Bugembe and in Iganga district.
- Introduce and revive Cricket to several schools around Busoga region including Lordes Meade, St James, Kiira College Butik among others.
We have also been able to organize a series of cricket events aimed at exposing the young people to the world.
Bat ball Open:
It was an under 19 tournaments organized on behalf of Bat Ball Cricket to give an opportunity to fresh talents in region to showcase their potential.
Batball X:
We hosted the East, Nile and northern Uganda teams that participated in Batball X, a tournament where the best teams that played in the BatBall Open met.
Red Ball-Four Day Long Format Cricket:
This is the signature event of East Enders hosted every December. The youngsters get the opportunity to be introduced to long format red ball cricket (technically called Test Cricket). In December last year, over 60 U-19 boys got a chance to play in Four 4-day games.
This event has also helped boys to be busy during holidays as its played during every holiday.
Starting this year, this event will take on the name, Nile Basin Series. The series will include a Four Day game against a visiting team, 3 ODI games against the visiting team and three T20 Games for U-17 girls.
Skyview Boys Schools Cricket Week:
This was a tournament for U-19 secondary school boys organized on behalf of the Uganda Cricket Association. They were 16 schools that participated for a period of 7 days.
Primary Schools Mini-Cricket:
This was a tournament organized on behalf of Uganda Cricket Association. It saw over 14 primary schools participate in mini-Cricket. We got a chance to organise both the district and regional tournament.
Inter Schools Tournament-Schools Leagues:
This was a twofold tournament for both girls and boys in cricket and tennis playing secondary schools. It’s from that tournament that the best schools in the region were selected to participate in the girls and boys cricket weeks respectively.
The ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy Tour
In a historic event, East Enders was selected to host the ICC Men Cricket World Cup Trophy when it toured Uganda ahead of the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India. The responsibility gave chance to children, young cricketers and other cricket enthusiasts an opportunity to witness the trophy for inspiration.
School and Community Coaching:
We have managed to train coaches that we send and they train in both the schools and communities around the Nile basin.
Capacity Building: Umpiring and coaching Course:
We One training course for umpires and coaches to ensure that we have a qualified team handling games and training sessions.
Boxing:
In the field of boxing the Hub is proud of being the first to organize the first professional boxing match since the 1980s. The bout between Tanzania’s Zulfa Iddy and Jinja based Salimat Tibesigwa was organized as a move to reawaken the spirit and interest in boxing and to interest youngsters in the region to join boxing.
Commentary Training:
In order to have a 360-degree sports entity, we opened up commentary and sports analysis opportunities to younger enthusiasts. So far, we have five young girls who commentate on all cricket tournaments as part of their learning to be future cricket commentators and analysts.
Community Social Responsibility:
For sports to be meaningful to the host communities, it must be responsive to the key issues that are dear to the community. We have therefore been part of three key community issues as a contribution towards creating awareness and also creating lasting change.
Dreams Restored:
This education sponsorship fund gives scholarships to brilliant but economically incapacitated kids form poor communities.
East Enders joined the fund and added in a sports component. Starting next year, the Dreams Restored will add a sports component to its scholarships. This means that kids form poor communities who prove sports talent and competency will have a chance at winning a scholarship courtesy of a contribution to the fund from East Enders.
Teenage Pregnancy Awareness:
We launched the cricket is life project to focus on attracting young girls into cricket. This is because Busoga Region is one of the leading regions in teenage pregnancy. Cricket is life has enabled us train over 100 girls from both community and primary and secondary schools around Jinja and Iganga districts.
Community Awareness of Non-Communicable Diseases:
Because the parents of the target sports girls and boys are largely old people, we started a community aerobics project to keep the parents of the sports boys and girls fit and health. This has helped in addressing the non-communicable diseases issue among our areas of operation.
Prepared by East Enders Cricket Foundation’s Operations Department.
