The Basketball Artists School (BAS) Foundation in Katutura officially opened their new basketball court on Saturday, 28 October. The new court was financed by the German embassy’s micro-project fund with approximately N$380 000.
Further sponsors were the former BAS supporting association Isibindi e.V. With its private German donors as well as the International Baskbetall Foundation (IBF) in cooperation with he German Basketball Federation (DBB).
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by more than 100 people, amongst them many young basketball players.
The German ambassador Christian Schlaga scored the first basket. Attending DBB representative Joachim Spägele was impressed with the progress that has been made at the BAS.
Andrew Masongo, president of the NBF, as well as Simaata Freddy Mwiya, chief administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), thanked the German embassy and the German donors for their continued support of Namibian youth basketball.
In return, founding trustee of BAS Foundation and German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) expert, Frank Albin, also thanked the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service for “the availing the ground inside the Katutura Sports Complex” and promised that “the BAS will maintain the facilities”.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by an official U18 FIBA 3×3 tournament in cooperation with the NBF.
BAS was founded in February 2010 and currently has 65 boys and girls from age seven to 19 attending the daily after-school programme, as well as almost 100 children attending the open programme twice a week.
The BAS’s motto is ‘education first – basketball second’. The BAS foundation is supported with the project ‘Free Throw – Basketball Artists Against HIV-AIDS’ through the DOSB an the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
