Tapping talent among poll violence victims

By Anderson Ojwang

It is a unique camp, and possibly the only one of its kind in Kenya. Supportive Hearts International camp in North Rift rehabilitates youths who were involved in post-election violence while tapping latent talent.

That is not the only unique side of the camp, it also provides opportunity to Paralympics and deaf-lympics athletes to nurture and exploit their potential.

The chairman of the camp, James Kendagor, says the facility was started last March to rehabilitate youths who were involved in the post-election violence to tap their potential and also empower them economically.

"Our objective is to use sports to spread peace and integrate the communities that were engaged in conflict," he said.

"We want to bring together the communities in the region to live peacefully through sporting activities," he says.

Kendagor says he went to the villages where he scouted for the youths and brought them to the camp and today it has a population of 203 athletes. Some of the athletes come from as far as Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga, Makueni, Samburu and Suba and all have been integrated and live like a family.

"I went round the country looking for the emerging talent who were either displaced or participated in the post-election violence and gave them the opportunity to explore and exploit their potential," he says.

He was concerned with the plight of several athletes who had talent and competed in local competitions, but could not participate in the international arena because there are so many champions who make it impossible for emerging ones.

Five athletes have received four-year scholarships to the United States to study and develop their potential.

Just a sign of what is in the store for the athletes, one of the runners Francis Bowen left last week to participate in the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon, while others are waiting to take part in various competitions.