Gotv Malawi has donated sets of netball uniforms to four secondary schools in Blantyre as a way of promoting the sport in the country.
Namiwawa, Lumbira, Chichiri and Zingwawa have received a complete set of twelve uniforms each.
MultiChoice Malawi Head of Operations Lunia Msuku said the donation is meant to boost the confidence in young girls and inspire them to take netball seriously as a sport.
“Gotv has taken the responsibility to enrich the netball spirit in young girls within secondary schools as well as to aid them with the necessary equipment to help them perform better. Gotv believes in giving back to local communities within which it operates,” she said.
Msuku added that they decided to filter to young secondary schools to inspire future netball stars that can continue with the great netball legacy that Malawi.
This comes at a time as there is a growing concern that some of the players in the current national netball have aged past their prime and there is need to groom young stars to replace the old ones.
Sports teacher at Lumbira CDSS Marion Mwenefumbo said the uniforms will go a long way to assist the school because they didn’t have one and had to borrow elsewhere each time their team was involved in a match.
“We are happy for this and we are very thankful to Gotv for giving us these uniforms, they will really motivate our young girls,” said the sports master.
NAM president Nkhungikire Matiya applauded Gotv for the donation saying it is in line with the association’s development goals which are to develop netball from the grassroots to ensure there is enough up-and-coming talent to feed into the senior clubs.
The NAM president however urged Gotv to consider bringing back the sponsorship for the Netball Champions League tournament because the girls are growing up and they will need to showcase the talent with senior clubs during tournaments.
Malawi has just returned from the 2019 Netball World Cup where it finished on position six and there is hope that in the next International Netball Federation (INF) rankings the Queens will go up from the current position nine.
