Netball Partnership: Babirye Kityo Once Again Silences Haters With Another Big Brand on Board
Uganda Netball federation reach another milestone with a new partner on board, coming with a package of 70 million Uganda shillings for a period of four months.
For starters in early March this year, the federation got its first official partner in GoTV Uganda, two months later another one is on board, a big credit to the Hon. Babirye Kityo Sarah.
On Wednesday, at the federation head offices at Old Kampala, they unveiled Kansai Plascon Uganda as the other She Cranes partner.
The paint company has announced a sponsorship package to aid in the preparation for the Commonwealth games and other activities this year worth Seventy million shillings (UGX70,0000,000).
The federation currently preparing for a nationwide tour, will receive UGX50M in cash while the remainder will be invested in marketing and branding the sport to extend both its appeal and reach with the goal of attracting other corporate sponsors.
Addressing the press, the Plascon Managing Director Santosh Gumte noted that unlike other sponsorships, the partnership with Netball is a platform to specifically empower women in sports.
“We cannot discuss gender equality without it being extended to sports and given as much attention especially in terms of allocation of funds. We understand that there are other aspects that need to fall in place such as structures to ensure a consistent conveyor belt of talent coming through and breaking social barriers that may still be reluctant to embrace the girl child taking on a career in sports, but we must start somewhere,” said Mr. Gumte.
He added that; “This is still a small token, but we purpose to increase on this next year when renewing our commitment with the federation. We believe with more consistent investment in women sports we shall augment the government efforts to uplift and promote gender equality in this country.”
The Netball Federation President, Hon. Babirye Sarah Kityo noted that gender equality is a major development indicator in any country today but also acknowledged that women everywhere, specifically in sports, need to stand up to be counted. She added that to attract a sponsor of the calibre of Plascon there had to be tangible results to show first and a clear strategic course of action on how to beat previous results and achieve higher goals.
“We are all familiar with the adage that; ‘He that educates a woman educates a village’. That saying rings true in sports as well. The skills imparted are not limited to sports. They are in fact life lessons. Virtues like teamwork, endurance, focus, consistence, overcoming adversity should be in every person’s survival kit no matter what they are involved in. So, when these skills are taught to our girls, the far-reaching impact is immeasurable. It is beyond sports. Therefore, the impact of Plascon’s investment cannot be overstated. We pledge to always beat the odds and set higher goals for ourselves to aspire to,” Hon. Babirye noted.
The sponsorship will mainly be channelled towards the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the World Cup qualifiers in Birmingham and South Africa respectively, among others.
According to Kityo, federation needs at least 250 million shillings to prepare the team but they haven’t received any coin from the government but she asserted that this amount is a big boost especially when the team had already started training at Kamwokya Community Sports Centre.