2017 IAAF and The Moses Project

This year school teachers from Endonyiosidai and Inchorroi working with the IAAF on a unique and exciting project aimed to increase pupil participation in organised school sports. The week long sports education training sessions in Nairobi were focused on sharing good practice and introducing new skillsets to the class teachers. Moses and the staff at our schools hope that they can use the knowledge gained to encourage children to actively participate in sport. Funding was set aside to support the teachers on the project and the week ended with a mass participation event at Kenyatta University with 30 pupils from the schools travelling overnight by bus from Endonyiosidai. 

Moses and the school staff have now set up a Masaai school scheme which aims to share the IAAF training with other teachers in the Masaai area.
The Moses Project gives a high five to Anna Legnani and the IAAF 'Kids for a Better World' team for involving us.

 This is how the IAAF reported the scheme

The IAAF and the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at University of Tsukuba joined forces with Kenyatta University, the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation and the United Nations Office in Nairobi to stage a packed day of activities for some 400 children on the playing fields at Kenyatta University last week

The children came from nine primary schools from Nairobi and further afield. They included schools from the Nairobi slums of Mathare, Korogocho and Kibera (represented by Kibera Street Kids, run by 1987 world marathon champion Douglas Wakiihuri), as well as Kenyatta University Primary School and Ngong. Some of the schools came from further away, including the Machakos School for the Deaf and Technical Institute for the Blind, and two schools from the Maasai Mara (Endonyiosidai and Inchorroi).

For the Endonyiosidai school in the Maasai Mara, this was not their first meeting with the IAAF. Exactly 10 years ago, a group of international journalists had travelled to Kenya on an IAAF trip to trace the steps of the country’s running legends. The week had culminated in a 'Day in the Life' experience with Paul Tergat, and his group’s training run that day had concluded in the Maasai Mara.

The chance meeting between a Welsh cameraman and a young Maasai teacher sparked the start of an ongoing project, which helped transform the local school from a mud hut with a pole serving as rudimentary blackboard to a school with seven brick classrooms, equipped with solar panels to provide electricity.

“Children in our area have talent but do not have a lot of opportunities," said Moses Ole Kipalias Chairman of The Moses Project "Events like this will encourage them, and the skills we teachers have learned will help us develop their talent.

“An event like this is such a positive experience for the children,” said Professor Vincent Onywera of Kenyatta University. “And it’s not just the sport that they’ll benefit from today. Food is important; some of these kids don’t see food. Maybe they’ll just have something in the morning, then that’s it. So the fact that they’ve come here and eaten something and they’re having fun, it will be a huge benefit to them.

“And the t-shirts – it will be a big thing when they go home in these new t-shirts, because some of these kids come from very poor backgrounds.”

There was a different colour t-shirt for each of the seven teams, each one representing a core Olympic value: excellence, courage, inspiration, friendship, determination, respect and equality.

Former marathon world record-holder Tegla Loroupe, who also had to overcome difficult circumstances and cultural barriers to excel at her sport, was a keen spectator throughout the day. So too were some of the athletes who have been part of the athlete refugee teams at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017.

“We’ve also helped to train the trainers. The word ‘legacy’ is overused, but we want to ensure we’ve left behind some teachings and learnings. There’ll be a legacy of athletics here in Nairobi from the World U18 Championships, but this event today is really powerful because it allows these teachers to teach others.”

No time was lost. When the IAAF visited the schools in Endonyiosidai and Inchorroi the day after the event, the teachers had already arranged a meeting with the other eight schools in their area to share the knowledge and benefits they had acquired from the Kids Athletics training.