Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officer, Luna Sinclair
Luna’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.
Knock, Knock NOC-K
Mambo! Hello everyone! My name is Luna Sinclair and I am one of two SportWORKS officers currently in Nairobi, Kenya with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya. I am an Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership student from Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, and currently starting the second month of my practicum through Commonwealth Sport Canada and the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program. I am so excited to be taking part in this experience and I can’t wait to share my experiences with you all here.
During my time with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) I will be working on a project called Cheza Healthy. Cheza Healthy is a sports for development program focused on the prevention of non-communicable diseases through lifelong physical activity and wellness. Our program visits local schools in Kenya to speak about ways to Cheza (play) and stay active and raise awareness about what students can do to be healthy and prevent non-communicable diseases. It has been so wonderful to work alongside the NOC-K team to learn about this program and help develop it further.
As an assignment for the Mount Royal University practicum class students are tasked with developing a project that contributes to their agency and their work. For my project I wanted to find a way to add to Cheza Healthy in a sustainable and meaningful way, so in consultation with my coworkers and supervisors I proposed that we partner with local athletes and have them speak at our Cheza Healthy events to further encourage students to participate in lifelong sport and physical activity. Luckily the amazing team at NOC-K has some great connections with athletes that can inspire and act as role models to students and we were able to include this idea in our first Cheza Healthy event last week!
On Thursday, February 6th, NOC-K hosted the first Cheza Healthy event of the year and PCEA Booth Girls High School in Kanjeru, Kenya. We arrived at the school at 4:00pm to a gym full of 200 high school aged girls who were all super eager to listen and participate. We started the event by speaking about non-communicable diseases, ways to stay active, and the Olympic Values Education Programme.
To follow there were demonstrations by Kenya’s Wushu martial arts athletes and Power Girl Africa, a local women’s Karate and martial arts organization, to show students new and fun ways to stay active.
We also were joined by Ferdinand Omanyala, the African record holder for fastest 100m, who spoke about perseverance and grit, and the importance of sports and physical activity in his life.
It was so exciting to see how the passion and talent of these athletes inspired the students, the energy in the room was incredible. Some of the girls even had the athletes autograph their notebooks and gym shirts after the event.
Having such a well known local athlete also caught the attention of a local newspaper, People Daily, who wrote about Cheza Healthy. Hopefully this will help us reach more schools to continue to raise awareness about staying active and non-communicable diseases.
I’ve been absolutely loving my time at work here but I also wanted to share some of my adventures exploring since I’ve arrived. Jenna, the SportWORKS officer who I am here with, and I have been trying our best to spend time with coworkers and to get out each weekend to explore Nairobi.
This past weekend we had a spectacular time rock climbing in Hell’s Gate National Park with BlueSky Climbing. We could even see zebras from the top!
We also did a half-day game drive in Nairobi National Park and had the opportunity to see rhinos, lions, monkeys, ostriches, and so much more! It feels surreal still that we’re across the globe.
I also had the incredible opportunity of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania through KiliTreks. Other than the altitude sickness I had the most amazing time. I am so grateful the organization let me have a week off for this bucket list experience.
That’s all for now! I can’t wait to keep you posted on our events and everything we learn while we’re here. I am so grateful to Mount Royal University, Commonwealth Sport Canada, Queen Elizabeth Scholars, and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya for this opportunity and I’m excited to make the most of it.
Baadaye (See you!)
Luna