Africa-Press – Namibia. STANDARD Bank Namibia yesterday announced a sponsorship of N$1,5 million over three years for the development of hockey throughout the country.
In terms of the sponsorship, the Standard Bank Namibia Junior Hockey Initiative will be organised and administered by the Hockey School of Excellence, which is run by Erwin Handura, who is also the national women’s hockey coach. Handura said he has been involved in hockey development for many years.
“I started the Hockey School of Excellence in 2003 and have been involved in hockey development in Namibia for the past 18 years. Standard Bank previously had a hockey development project that ran from 1992 to 2002, but then it came to a standstill and the Hockey School of Excellence was established soon after. But now Standard Bank has agreed to enter into a partnership with us and the main idea is to take hockey to all 14 regions of Namibia,” he said.
The president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Reagon Graig, thanked Standard Bank for their investment in hockey. “Standard Bank’s sponsorship will go a long way to help with development and administration, and the coaching of staff. I’d love to see the players at the centre of the sport and nurturing the talent that is there and today is such a moment,” he said.
“The key to success is to be well-governed and to provide facilities to help expand the game by bringing business into hockey,” he added. The chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Freddy Mwiya said that hockey was a well organised sport in Namibia.
“Hockey is a well run sport, it is in good standing with the NSC and there is also transformation within the sport. For about three years there was a challenge within hockey which was brought to our office, but now transformation is in place and this project will help develop the sport further to all 14 regions of Namibia,” he said, adding that hockey will also be included at the National Youth Games from next year.
The chief executive officer of Standard Bank Namibia, Mercia Geises, said they wanted to help Namibia’s youth find their purpose. “The hockey development programme is our way of helping our youth to find their purpose and as we have recently seen at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, when Namibians discover their purpose, they deliver results,” she said.
“Muhammad Ali once said impossible is just a big word thrown about by small men, it’s not a fact, it’s an opinion. So I’m asking our youth to show that it can be done, impossible is nothing it’s just a dare to achieve great things, so that we can live our own lives with purpose. We are here to develop and enable your journey and we believe we can make a big success of this,” she added.
The deputy minister of sport, youth and national services, Emma Kantema-Gaomas thanked Standard Bank for their investment in hockey, saying it was assisting their efforts to professionalise sport in Namibia.
“Partnerships of this nature are crucial for athletes as it comes at a right time when we embark on professionalising sport in line with NDP 5 and the Harambee Prosperity Plan 2.
“This initiative will assist us to achieve that goal as it is aimed at introducing hockey to all 14 regions of Namibia, reaching 2 080 learners from 104 schools, develop 208 coaches and 92 umpires over the next three years. On completion of this project, 26 towns will benefit from this initiative,” she said.
“Today we are witnessing a beautiful story that demonstrates that with partnership we can achieve better and we can develop legends,” she added.
