By Lorna Abuga.
When Florence Ofwenje was retrenched from the Kenya Posta and Telecommunication Company in 2007 she opted to use her volleyball skills to nurture the talents of the younger generation.
Ofwenje who is the Nakuru sitting volleyball team coach began playing volleyball at a tender age says her talent made her to secure a job at Kenya Posta and Telecommunication, Nakuru branch immediately she finished her O levels.
But in 2007 when she received a retrenchment letter signifying that her employer was longer interested in her services, she sensed danger.
“When I lost my job I encountered a lot of difficulties and this provoked me to use the skills that I had garnered in sport to offer voluntary coaching training to youths who had interest in volleyball so as to make a difference in their lives.”
However she recalls in the year 2013, when she was training some youths at Afraha Stadium, people living with disability (PWD’s) approached her and requesting to be trained so as to enhance themselves through sports.
“I had never trained individuals with special needs but this motivated me to acquire skills of training them because individuals with disabilities are often sidelined and often take part in activities as passive participants,” she said.
Luckily though within that period the ministry of sports organized a training for coaches at in the town where they were equipped with skills of handling people living with disability.
This acted as a motivator and as result she was able to mobilize people living with disability and they formed a team known as the Nakuru Sitting Volleyball Group.
When she started coaching the team they faced many difficulties as the team did not have enough resources.
“The team mainly consists of players who are physically challenged and this means that they always play while sitting down on the grass which in most cases distracts their movement.”
“To stop that they required a special carpet as well as also a special shade to shield them from direct sunlight,” she said.
Over the years the team has been able to represent the county in several competitions country wide with two of its players being selected to join the national team early this year. This makes her proud.
What pulls them back however is the fact that most of her group members have to balance between fending for their families and the training. Most of them are either cobblers or hair dressers and earn very low incomes yet the sport does not earn them anything.
“Since I was retrenched I have been selling second hand clothes for my upkeep,”
she says while revealing that even getting funds to attend competitions is usually an uphill task for them.
“I think the players should be funded to boost their morale.”
Ofwenje is a mother of four who cleared her O levels in 1985. While working with Kenya Posta and Telecommunication she was selected to be part of the Kenyan Queens team. She was from 1992 selected to represented the country in international competitions for several years.
