By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA – Kamo ‘Sense’ Mokoena of Makwane village says he trains school children, especially girls, in karate to equip them with self-defence skills at an early age.
However, he says children that dropped out of school are not left out as they too are vulnerable to different kinds of abuse, such as turning into drug addicts or criminals.
“I introduced karate in Lusaka in QwaQwa in 2022 with the aim of equipping them with skills to defend themselves while also removing them from the streets and protecting from drugs and crime,” Mokena
said.
Speaking in an interview with this publication, Mokoena revealed that his team of four players aged 14 to 15 years will be contesting in a tournament that will be held in Boksburg Gauteng on May 27,2023. He fancied the team’s prospects of emerging victorious.
“All in all, we need to take 15 players but at the moment we can only afford to take these four to this weekend’s tournament to be held in Boksburg, Gauteng. This is our first tour as a team and we wanted
to take all our 15 players to get the exposure and experience. It pains me to have had to pick only four
players, considering that all of them had qualified to compete at the upcoming tournament.
“That notwithstanding, we are going there to win and just to add numbers. We are confident with our preparations. If we could have secured sponsorship in the form of transport, we could be taking all of
them.”
He explained that the team has a lot of needs such as a karate suit, gloves and of course punching
bags.
“As you can see we have many school going children that we are training, but we have one punching back and a pair of gloves. We also do not have a proper space for practicing. We would like to have a space which we can use for our practice, like in Lusaka where there is a hall which is not in use, a classroom at school or public hall. We practice in an open unprotected place and when it is very cold
or rainy we are unable to practice.
“Our training attire is white and must be kept clean all the times. Training space and equipment are very important for us to thrive.”
One Response
That’s a good thing to our youth nowadays…to keep our kids out of the street may God bless you Mr mokoena and keep up your good work for our children….best of luck to the team