Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

About 3000 community youth and children from Kibera slums shall be educated or certified in sports, HIV-AIDS, leadership, lifeskills, health & environment for awareness. They will be integrated into normal society through regular jobs and schooling.

Project Message

I went through the academy school through scholarship & sports. I completed high school and university and I now work as an accounts assistant in a PR agency. I now help others at Sadili to succeed.
- Arianne Otiende Okong'o, Beneficiary of the program

Who is Running This Project

Sadili Oval's Current Projects on GlobalGiving

The African Child Sport & Education Fund Needs You

Provide Kibera Slum Children with 1500 Solar Lamps

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Kenya and can also be found under Sport.

For more information about Kenya, read the Human Development Report on Kenya or the Wikipedia entry for Kenya.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on November 24, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on February 27, 2007.

Latest Update from the Field

Tennis icon Serena Williams comes calling ……… as Kenyan Lawn Tennis Association (KLTA) officials mis

By Sadili Oval - , November 24, 2008 05:54 PM

World number two female player Serena Williams made a successful three-day tour of Kenya and virtually brought life to a standstill wherever she went. The tennis icon arrived in country on November 13, 2008 and had her first official engagement in the dusty Eastern province district of Makueni, where she opened a school named after her; The Serena Williams Secondary at Matooni.

Serena, who is ranked second behind Serbian Jelena Jankovic, described the occasion as her moment of joy to help the deprived of society. The school was constructed through the funds provided by Serena, together with Hewlett Packard (a computer accessories company) and The Build African Schools Organization, which funds and supports construction of schools in marginalised areas.

The newly opened school boasts of a modern state-of-the-art computer laboratory that runs on solar power supplied by Hewlett Packard. Williams later paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The climax of her tour was a visit to Sadili Oval Complex in Langata, on the outskirts of Nairobi, where she conducted a tennis clinic and gave motivational talk to upcoming tennis players.

Estate comes under siege as Serena visits Sadili Oval

Residents of Civil Servants Quarters which neighbours Sadili Oval literally found themselves under siege when Serena Williams visited the locale. Diplomatic Police Unit and plain clothes policemen threw a cordon around the estate to protect the tennis icon and deter any eventuality of transgression. So tight was security that the place was only accessible via a special pass. One man was heard to jokingly comment; “Not even a rat can gain entry here.”

At exactly 10:30am, a convoy of three SUV’s rolled into the compound as cameras started clicking. The VIP rode in the same car as her mother, Oracene Williams and elder sister Isha Price. Dressed in a sky blue Nike T-shirt and black bikers, the icon was received by her host and director of the centre, Dr Liz Odera, who took immediate charge of her itinerary after signing the visitors’ book.

The multitude of photographers clicking away to capture her every moment at the tennis-playing complex and the myriad of eyes trained on Serena caused her uneasiness initially, but she overcame it with time. After a brief chat with the Minister for Sports Prof. Hellen Sambili, Serena ventured where she best feels at home – the tennis court. She toured five courts where players were assembled according to their age-groups. She played a demonstration double and the serves from her well-chiselled and powerful physique was testimony why she is the best.

For the youngsters, it was an occasion that will forever remain etched in their minds. Rubbing shoulders with the celebrity was a dream come true to the young people and the reality will no doubt take tennis in the country a notch higher. It also dawned on them that a famous person does not have a private life. “If this is what it means to be a superstar, I am beginning to have second thoughts,” remarked 16-year old Terry Odera, who found the limelight too intimidating.

Religion forbade Serena Williams from voting

Tennis star Serena Williams rooted for Barack Obama to become America's next president, even though her religion forbade her from voting. Williams and her sister Venus are among several million Jehovah's Witnesses in the U.S. who were forced to remain politically neutral and restricted from taking part in elections.

"I don't really get involved in political affairs because of the way I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, but it's exciting to see someone like Barack Obama have a chance to lead one of the world's biggest nations.
It's good. It makes my heart smile."

She has a total Grand Slam singles titles of nine. In addition, she teamed up with big sister Venus to capture a second Wimbledon doubles crown and an Olympic gold medal. She tops the 2008 money list by nearly a million dollars, reclaimed the world No 1 ranking (albeit briefly) that she held five years previously and suffered fewer defeats than any leading player, male or female.

Curiously, she maintains that the Olympic gold medal for the doubles in Beijing prompted more delight than the US Open success. “The Olympics were the best thing that happened to me this year,” she said. “I’m the kind of person who believes I will win US Open titles and, growing up, I always aspired to win Grand Slam titles but it was never my goal to win a gold medal.

Serena Williams is forever switching between the demands of top-flight tennis, fashion design, acting, philanthropic deeds and now writing an inspirational memoir that will double as her life history. No less an observer than former tennis great Billie Jean King remains insistent that Serena could definitely have become the greatest woman to have played tennis if she had been totally focused on the task in hand.

Her upbringing decreed that there would always be other aims and interests in the Williams sisters’ lives. For Serena the most discernible is a desire to make a meaningful contribution to her roots, flying first to South Africa and then Kenya where she made gifts of numerous computers to underprivileged schools.

She then flew to Senegal to survey land where she intends to build a school of her own. “For years I wanted to do a charity and something I knew would be beneficial for others,” she said. “I kept asking, ‘Should I do something for Africa or should it be for women?’ In 2006 I went to Africa and saw things over there that just weren’t fair. Kids couldn’t afford to go to school because their parents couldn’t afford to pay the equivalent of a dollar a week and that left me mortified. I kept thinking where I would have been without my own education. “I realised I had finally found my calling and my love because Africa is my roots, it’s where I come from. So I’ve formed a foundation that will build that school in Senegal to allow those kids to be educated for free. What is most important to me is that they will have a chance to be the best they can be and more.”

KLTA officials missing in action

World number two female tennis player was in town, yet local officials of the game were conspicuous by their absence, having decided to skip all her functions. Reason? “We were not invited,” says Njeri Onyango, Vice-Chairman of the Kenya Lawn Tennis Association.

“We were open and a number of kids who applied personally got passes. Only those who asked too late missed a chance to participate and could only watch. At the end of the day, it’s all about kids, and the clinic was completely free of charge, so that poor kids (mostly from our Kibera programme) got preferential chance to come,” counters Odera.
“I also know that Rawal and Mutuku requested the organisers of the trip for an appointment for their national team, and were asked to send me 5-6 names, but there were no officials to get passes. No names were sent so we had to give out the places to other worthy children from Kisumu and Mombasa.”

KLTA is the body mandated to run the game in the country. It operates under an archaic constitution that was crafted during the colonial times and which limited the sport to select few. The game was restricted to private members club where the tennis courts are still found to date. The beneficiaries deliberately curtailed the spread of the game across the board for selfish reasons. The subsequent office-bearers maintained the status quo for strange reasons known only to them. Forty-five years after independence, the modus operandi still prevails. There is no let-off for those wishing to play the game and who are not registered at the few private clubs that are sprinkled around the country. Enter Dr. Elizabeth Odera. She has created an opportunity at Sadili Oval for more than 1300 children between four and 21 years and to who access to these facilities would still remain a pipe dream, to develop their skills.

Sadili is home to 470 juniors who play tennis every week out of which a sizeable number come from the neighbouring slums of Kibera. Instead of seeing Sadili as a partner that complements the efforts of the association, KLTA has been seeing a rival. The tennis body has often claimed that Sadili was behaving like a rival body, claims that Dr. Odera vehemently denies. “KLTA should thank me because I have kept aloft the game of tennis in the country and given it the visibility it lacks. For a body that does not hold its own tournaments, it is ludicrous to hear such outrageous remarks. I am a partner who complements their efforts.”

A tennis enthusiast, Mbugua Ndiki, believes that nothing good can emanate from KLTA. “The association is the only one in the country where parents of children representing the country on national duty are made to buy uniform and meet expenses for the team, whether locally or internationally.” Ndiki is father to two tennis-playing siblings, Rahab and Esther Mbugua, who are on a tennis scholarship in the US.

Serena’s host – Dr Liz Odera

Dr. Elizabeth Odera studied at the Kenya Medical Research Institute
(KEMRI) where she obtained a Master of Science. She did her PhD thesis on leishmaniasis which she defended at both Kenyatta University and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She then taught at Kenyatta University from 1996 in the Zoology Department. She was captain of Kenyatta University tennis team from 1983 to 1986 and is one of the best tennis players Kenya has ever produced. She is also an international tennis professional.

Dr. Odera has demystified the game of tennis and opened opportunities to about 3000 children from poor and rich communities alike, making Sadili the melting point for tennis in the region. She has been involved in the education and training of more than 11,000 youth in various sports, including basketball, tennis, soccer, rugby, athletics and swimming. Dr. Odera
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• Serena watching young girl play

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