Paralympics Committee in search of sponsorship

The Tanzania Paralympics Committee (TPC) is extending its web in search of sponsorship packages that would help to implement some of the development programs in primary and secondary schools.

TPC president Johnson Meela said the planned activities are highly beneficial but lack of sponsorship stands as a stumbling block to implement effectively.

He said TPC development projects bank heavily on financial and material support courtesy of the International Paralympics Committee (IPC). However, the support is not enough to cover a wide geographical location of the country.

Meela declined to mention the amount of funds needed to support the planned activities, saying poor financing has led to failure of staging national championships for the disabled sportsmen and women.

Besides the national championships, development project are also stagnant.

“We have a number of development programs aimed at reaching out to many primary and secondary school students in the country but we fail to implement as a result of poor financing and material support,” he said.

The TPC president was speaking at the end of the Simba Cement international open tennis tournament at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club last Saturday.

The deputy director of sports in the ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Julian Yassoda, who was the guest of honour at the event, said the Government is committed to develop sports.

She thanked Simba Cement for accommodating wheel-chair tennis at this year’s event.

She said the decision has shown seriousness the company is supporting sports to all people regardless of their physical outlook.

Yasoda urged other companies to emulate the good gesture shown by Simba Cement in development of sports.

“The Government is really happy with what Simba Cement has done here; it’s very interesting and touching watching wheel-chair tennis players in action. I am asking other companies and organisations to emulate what Simba Cement has done,” she said.

The tournament attracted 20 wheel-chair tennis players competing in different categories that included singles and doubles for either sex.

In ladies singles, Scolastica Pius beat Rehema Said to win the title as Habiba Ngallen and Zena Kobona were losing semi-finalists.

Yohana Mwila shocked Kihiyo Thomas
in men’s wheel-chair single as Kosovo Hashim and Novatus Emmanuel were losing finalists.

In wheelchair doubles, Adili Ashmy and Kihiyo Thomas were runners-up after losing to eventual winning duo of Yohana Mwila and Novatus Emmanuel.

The performance of wheelchair tennis players at the tournament impressed many.

The tournament chief umpire Kenyan Patrick Kamuhia encouraged TPC to organise more tournaments in support of the disabled players.

“Last March, I saw Yohana Mwila and other players from Tanzania competing in Kenya and I told the Tanzania team to keep fighting as they are the best team. If this team maintains the pace and spirit, I’m sure you will have a competent team in the continent,” he said.

Simba Cement national sales manager Leslie Massawe assured TPC of continued support to reach out many disabled players.