By Eseche Omonua – The Stop Knife Crime Project, organized, by the Ekpoma Okpa Association, UK, 2021, was held on the 29th of July 2021, at Burgess Park, South East London.
The officially launch of the project, which took place at the premises of Rise United Football Club, attracted parents and youths from the neighboring communities.
The development project, supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, is aimed at engaging youths from the diverse communities in London.
The association held competitive sporting activities, and raised awareness on how to prevent knife crimes and the dangers of gang related grooming as part of her initiative to support families impacted by Covid-19 lockdown.
The very informative, engaging and encouraging presentation, by the association’s board of trustee member Fred Daniel Aikhuele, and the president of the association, Agbonbhaselena Omonua, captivated the young people all through the session.
The leaders of the association were able to provide the young people with advice and pointed them to the dangers of keeping bad company, as well as hints on the different streams of engaging and productive activities available.
The youths were directed specifically to take advantage of online games development, arts and craft design, music talent development in addition to competitive sporting activities that will not only keep the young people out of harm’s way but nurture and guide them through their sporting journey in the next coming weeks.
The day first started, with the young people gathered around a tennis table to play table tennis with one another, supervised by one of the Rise United coaches. As the day progressed, the young people formed a circle around the speakers to discuss the aims of the project and to advise them about the dangers of knife crime, especially considering the newfound freedom given from the easing of lockdown restrictions and the start of the summer holiday.
The final event of the day was the donation of high-performance laptop computer to a young person selected from the community to assist and motivate their learning academic independence but also have the access to learn and create whilst engaging with others and her peers online. She accepted the gift happily with her father by her side, who gave her support from beginning to the end.
The event came to an end with the serving of food and music to entertain the young people and their families.
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