Lord’s Taverners Donate Sports Kits To CSED Initiative
By Akeem Busari
UK based sports recycling charity, Lord’s Taverners, recently donated sports kits and equipment worth over thirty million naira to CSED (Community Sport and educational Development) Initiative.
The donated kits and equipment which weighed 998 kilogrammmes was warmly received by the Trustees of CSED Initiative.
It would be recalled that since 2019, this is the fifth batch of sports kits donation that Lord’s Taverners have successfully donated to CSED Initiative.
In total, CSED Initiative has received sports kits weighing over three thousand kilogrammes from Lord’s Taverners.Most of this batch of donated sport kits items are for cricket, netball, badminton, football, casual sportswear and tracksuits.
Some of the prominent institutions that have benefitted from the kits that were donated by Lord’s Taverners in the past are Edo State Cricket Association, the cricket team of ABU Zaria, the cricket team of IDPs Uhogua, Cameroonian refugees in Ogoja (Cross River State).
Furthermore, some selected schools in Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Taraba States, have benefitted from the free cricket kits that were donated by Lord’s Taverners to CSED Initiative.
In a recent email correspondence between a Trustee of CSED Initiative, a Project Manager of Lord’s Taverners, a representative of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), acknowledged the role the kits that Lord’s Taverners donated to CSED Initiative played in the development of some of the cricketers who recently played in the Nigerian female cricket team at the recently completed T20, U-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia.
Nine out of these fifteen cricketers are players from Edo State whose cricket Association received 250 kilogrammes of donated cricket kits from CSED Initiative in April 2019.
Furthermore, CSED, have also donated cricket items to a cricket project that has supported the development of the two cricketers from Akwa Ibom State, who featured for Nigeria in the Malaysian tournament.
During an interview with sports reporters, a representative of CSED Initiative, stated that the new batch of donated equipment from Lord’s Taverners, will enable them to empower three thousand children and youths in respect of supporting some of their basic sports kits needs.
The donated kits will enable CSED Initiative to train three hundred P.E. Teachers in 2025.
“So, it is going to be a win-win situation for grassroots sports.”
However, CSED Initiative, have been informed that the Lord’s Taverners sports kits recycling project is going to close in March 2025, as a result of financial constraint.
The National Coordinator of CSED Initiative stated that this news was a huge shock to them, and the sports recycling community all over the world.
As Lord’s Taverners have a global base of sports for change NGOs, that they have supported in the past few decades.
Though Lord’s Taverners was mainly set up as a cricket charity, it has over the years supported other sports at the grassroots level.
“We in CSED Initiative, will forever remain grateful for the support we have received from Lord’s Taverners. Especially in respect of the sport of netball. As they have supported us with balls, bibs, netball jerseys, T-shirts and skirts. These donated netball kits gave us the courage to strive to revive the game of netball in Nigeria through our ongoing: “Project 2027” drive where we have trained and equipped more than three hundred and seventy P.E. Techers and community leaders.”
While receiving the donated items in their Niger Delta base, the National Coordinator of CSED Initiative, assured Dave Pemberton (Project Manager of Lord’s Taverners) that the sports kits will be distributed for free to selected schools and vulnerable community groups (IDPs and asylum seekers/refugees) they currently work with, as well as, new sets of schools and communities, who will be expected to put the donated kit into good use.
