Hope4girls camp dunks off in Lagos

THE third yearly edition of Hope4girls holiday basketball camp dunks off today at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Complex at Rowe Park in Yaba, Lagos.For the first time, athletes from Ghana and Benin Republic will participate in the exercise with 10 students from the two West African nations joining their Nigerian counterparts at the four-day exercise for athletes below 17.According to the founder of the organisation, Bolaji Akiode, 'Hope4girlsafrica is going into its third year as a non-profit organisation dedicated to using sports to empower and encourage the young girls of Nigeria and Africa.'Our Princess Academy, which we started just a year ago with partnerships that will grow to 12 government schools in Lagos, has grown in leaps and bounds in the last year.'To celebrate our accomplishments and part of the true nature of the Christmas season, Hope4girls is having its third national camp that will include Ghana, Benin Republic and of course, Nigeria.'The camp will last till Friday with over 60 athletes expected to participate. The former national player, Akiode, said: 'Our goal has always been to support young girls through basketball and also spread the benefits of participating in sports in addition to education.'Hope4girlsafrica is not just about basketball, we also engage our girls in social programmes targeted at young girls during the year and at every camp we have live seminar sessions everyday to add to the depth of the programme.'For this year's edition, 'our topics will be dental and oral hygiene, gender violence and rape, nutrition, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. These are issues we feel are important to the overall development of the girl-child but are being neglected in schools.
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