Parents fundraise for tournament swimmers
Adnan Kabuye (R) and Tendo Mukalazi at the Aga Khan Swiming Pool in Kololo on Saturday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
KAMPALA. The children did their part and qualified to represent Uganda at the Cana Zone IV Championships in Angola. However, the swimming federation does not have the funds to facilitate their trip.
Parents of the swimmers at Dolphins Swim Club therefore started a fundraising campaign to facilitate travels of the two swimmers who made the nine-man team to represent Uganda from May 6 to 9.
The swimmers, Adnan Kabuye and Tendo Mukalazi and their coach, Mr Muzafaru Muwanguzi, require $6,900 (about Shs20m) for the trip to Angola. The team is scheduled to leave on May 4.
“Swimming is a very expensive sport. You may have a child who is a very good swimmer but the parents may fail to afford the money to send them for continental championships,” Mr Stephen Katumba, the general secretary of Dolphins Club, said, adding that the club decided to come up with the initiative because the team has been doing fairly well in the region.
“We are also going to participate in the Kenya National Championships (May 15 to 17), where our young swimmers have won the championship three times in a row,” Mr Katumba said.
At the first campaign held at the club’s swimming pool at the Aga Khan Nursery School in Kololo, $2,903 (about Shs8,709,000) was collected from event fees, gate collections and contributions from parents.
The club has also designed booklets, each containing 15 tickets, to raise the remaining amount of $3,997 from well-wishers. Each ticket costs Shs20,000, and whoever buys the ticket becomes a sponsor.
Kabuye and Mukalazi will also benefit from the club’s week-long training programme with Fina’s (International Swimming Federation)’s American coach Rick Powers that started on Sunday at Olympia Hostel in Makerere.
More than 100 swimmers competed, to make this team, at the Cana 2015 national team trials held at Gems Cambridge School in February. But Uganda Swimming Federation (USF) had to zero down on just nine swimmers whose parents could meet the expenses.
USF hosted the Cana Zone III & IV Championships last year, graced by Zambia, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa and Rwanda, among others. Uganda fielded 38 swimmers and won 31 medals.
Cana 2015 team
Male Swimmers: Tendo Mukalazi, Adnan Kabuye, John Lule (assistant captain), Nabil Saleh, Fadhil Thabit Saleh, Ambala Atuhaire Ogola, Josiah Ssempa
Female Swimmers: Kirabo Namutebi, Avice Meya (Captain)
