Sports Visitors from Tanzania: Living a Dream in the U.S.
“Seeing is believing … And then it’s still hard to believe my dreams have come true.”- Bahati Mgunda
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On September 29, 2009, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ SportsUnited office welcomed 19 basketball coaches (12 men, 7 women) from Tanzania for a Sports Visitors program. This action-packed 13 day two-city program was filled with a whirlwind of activities and clinics for the basketball coaches to learn from and take home the information to make their own. The coaches arrived with ideas of growing the game of basketball and reaching out to a younger base of youth in Tanzania.
The group’s first week was spent in the Washington, D.C. area where they visited local schools and universities, and participated in and observed many basketball clinics as well as other sports clinics. Inspired by a wheelchair basketball session, one participant vowed that when he returned to Tanzania he would work hard to restart a now defunct wheelchair basketball association. Also in D.C., the group attended a NBA pre-season game. This game was of special interest as the group was able to watch the Washington Wizards vs. the Memphis Grizzlies, currently the only NBA team with a native Tanzanian player, in action on the court.
The group’s next stop was San Antonio, Texas. Here, they also observed a practice and participated in a coaches clinic with the San Antonio Spurs. Several members of this delegation participated in the SportsUnited Sports Envoy program that sent Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs to Tanzania in 2008. The group also visited schools, and attended a high school pep rally. The pep rally was a new experience for them, and recharged their imaginations as to how they could return home and get more youth and parents excited and willing to participate in sporting events. Throughout the program, the Sports Visitors were impressed with on the emphasis on community-based programs and parental support for sports in the United States. They left the United States with many ideas about how to build a great network and plan to arrange seminars for sports teachers to share their experience.
Since the group’s return home, they have flooded the SportsUnited office with updates and future plans for boys and girls basketball in Tanzania.
“I wish this program, this cooperation, should never end here in America … Viva Tanzania, Viva America.”- Juliana Yassoda
