Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officer, David Cobos
David’s international experiential learning experience is funded by the Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) Program. This collaborative initiative is made possible through the leadership of the Rideau Hall Foundation, in collaboration with Community Foundations of Canada, Universities Canada, and Canadian universities. Through its promotion of international student exchange and civic engagement, the QES program is helping to grow young Canadians into global citizens while promoting Canada as a destination for the world’s top talent and attracting top talent and international research leaders to Canada.
Hello everyone,
My name is David Cobos, I was born in Colombia but raised in Canada. When I came across the opportunity to travel for a work placement through Commonwealth Sport Canada, Mount Royal University and the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program, I had to apply. I was thrilled to learn I’d be going to Kenya—it was my first solo overseas trip. In the weeks leading up to it, I was busy spending time with family, preparing documents, and preparing myself for a 24-hour flight with my fear of heights and motion sickness. Let’s just say, planes are not my best friends when I travel. Thankfully, I traveled with fellow Canadian SportWORKS Officer, Jess, which made the journey easier.
Upon arriving in Nairobi, we were greeted by Enoch and Tony from the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K). Exhausted but excited, we grabbed some food before heading to the hotel. The weekend was spent settling in, finding accommodation, getting sim cards, and adjusting to the reality of being in Nairobi for four months—exciting yet a bit nerve-wracking being in a new environment.
I went straight to work on Monday, September 9, believing that I had recovered from my jet lag. That day, we held our first team meeting with our NOC-K coworkers. We had the opportunity to meet all department leaders and learn about their responsibilities. Following the conference, we had an official meeting with Maya and Kate, the project coordinators for the CHEZA Healthy project that we are now working on. Understanding non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is necessary to understand CHEZA Healthy. Non-communicable diseases are responsible for around 40 million fatalities globally, and the risk of developing an NCD in Kenya has increased in the last few years. The most common NCDs among the population are obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The key objective of CHEZA Healthy is to teach kids and young adults the mental and physical benefits of maintaining an active lifestyle through sports and physical activity to prevent NCDs. These are modifiable risk factors that may be avoided by physical activity. Creating this awareness would motivate young adults to continue to adopt sports or physical exercise into their daily routines and continue doing so for the rest of their lives.
I was excited to join the CHEZA Healthy project, knowing the impact sports had on my life and wanting to share that experience. Initially, I expected a gradual start, but Jess and I quickly got involved by attending OVEP (Olympic Values Education Program) training. While different from CHEZA, both projects target the same demographic and complement each other. We learned to integrate Olympic values into our sessions and connected with teachers and coaches from various counties, expanding our network for future collaborations.
After completing the workshop and receiving our OVEP certificates, Godfrey (OVEP participant) invited us to attend the Kenyatta University Student Association event. We were given the chance to present CHEZA Healthy and OVEP to university captains, head coaches, and referees from the basketball association before the sports season began. What we expected to be a small event for 30 to 40 people turned into a presentation for over 120 participants, as multiple sports teams showed up—bringing not just the captains, but entire teams from various sports. Don’t get me wrong the more people the better but I wasn’t mentally prepared to speak in front of that many people. It was a nice surprise, although most of the participants were university athletes and not the target demographic for CHEZA Healthy; they already lead active lifestyles. As Jess and I introduced the project, we encouraged them to become ambassadors of CHEZA for the younger generation, promoting awareness of NCDs and the benefit of sport within their communities and clubs. After the event, we had the chance to watch some basketball games between universities, which was exciting. We learned that university basketball teams play on outdoor concrete courts (RIP ankles!), and through Godfrey, we gained a better understanding of how sports teams and clubs operate in Kenya which will make it easier for us to plan events in the future.
At the end of September, we presented CHEZA Healthy at the Tennis Federation in Nairobi Club. Jess and I designed a simple dynamic stretching program for the participating age group. We ran two 30-minute sessions: Kate and Maya introduced CHEZA Healthy for the first 10 minutes, followed by Jess and I leading the stretches. The event ended with a fun DJ-led dance session. The kids were excited, followed our instructions well, and were having a blast with the dance session. After the games were done they came up to me and showing some cool tricks, made me copy their moves, and made me sing in front of them! They tried to teach me their dance moves but some were too complicated for me, I’ll just stick to my Latin dance moves for now. Overall it was a great experience I was really happy with what we were able to do this month and I look forward to developing the project more throughout my stay.
Hadi wakati mwingine
(Until next time)
David