CATS come to Port Harcourt

The CATS project, a British Council initiative uses the natural love for football by Nigerians to bring youth together, particularly the disadvantaged ones.

In Lagos state, there is a CATS female football team playing in the first division of the league as well as boys U12 and U-16 sides.

Debby Bay is the CATS coordinator for the British Council and she told www.nigeriasports.com that bringing the project to Port Harcourt is just their way of expanding the scope of the scheme.

“It started three years ago in Lagos and it is only the kids that can tell you if it has been a success or not. There are more than 200 of them in Lagos and for Port Harcourt we already have about 80 kids.”

She said it is part of community development work and the 80 kids they will work with in Port Harcourt were chosen by NGOs in the town.

“We are not just about gathering kids who are good in sports, we are also about character moulding, making sure these kids are useful to themselves and society.”

The project is sponsored by telecommunications giant, MTN.

Port Harcourt Regional Manager of the group, Tebogo Megapi, said his company decided to sponsor the project because sports is one easy way to break barriers that exist within people.

“Nigerians are crazy about sports, especially football and if we can attract these kids to us because they will play football or other sports we can then first discover the talents in them and then enhance it, not forgetting character moulding.”